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Catherine David answers the following question

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Question

what is the purpose of public international law if there are no effective enforcement mechanisms to apply it? Maria Kyriacou


Answer

Catherine David: Thats a very deadpan and true question and conclusion at the same time. Its evident that international laws can become more complex or can be reformed to be more precisely, to become real laws. But I think the problem is not about the laws but about their application. So this is a very complicated problem as the law exists and as it can solve a lot of problems but at the same time their is a problem of application. And as there are problems of application, there are political problems and in this way problems of int he range of governments, problems of arbitrage and of decisions. And in this way we have to take a look on certain institutions like the UN which should enforce the international laws but they do not always function in the right way as the UN for example asks for the respect of sanctions to Hamas in a totally different way as it asks Israel for the respect of sanctions. And thats absolutely inacceptable and very dangerous. So I think the problem is not about the law itself as it would not be very difficult to reform , to rebuilt and to rewrite a certain number of laws. But the problem is that we can dispose of the best written and the most precisly laws and it is absolutely in vain as we are not able to applicate and to enforce them and thats above all a political problem.