International Conventions
International Conventions
- Angus NurseAngus NurseAnglia Ruskin University Faculty of Arts Law and Social Sciences Ringgold standard institution - Anglia Law School Cambridge
Summary
International law provides a framework for dealing with crime and deviance of global significance and addressing issues that are common to many countries and jurisdictions. International criminal law in particular identifies those crimes considered to be threats to international peace and security. It also covers transnational crimes of significant concern to the international community and that have the potential to affect more than one country.
The key international law mechanisms are conventions; treaties or agreements between countries that can be of a general or specific nature and that are created between two or multiple states. Conventions are thought of as “hard law” as they are written agreements, the precise terms of which can be referred to in the event of a dispute.
For criminology and criminal justice study, international conventions provide for an examination of international justice, conceptualizing international crime priorities and conceptions on how justice systems can deal with crimes that transgress borders and fall outside the scope of domestic law. There are international conventions that codify priorities in international crime, specifying genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity as key international concerns for consideration by an international court, while arguably implying that some other major contemporary threats like cybercrime are of lesser importance. But there are also specific conventions on topics like organized crime, the trade in endangered species, and cybercrime that set out the obligations on states to deal with these issues.
Despite the existence of these international conventions, the extent to which states comply with international law mechanisms is largely a matter of choice. The concept of state sovereignty means that states may comply with an international convention only to the extent that they are willing to. Indeed, some states choose to opt out of enforcement and judicial mechanisms like the International Criminal Court (ICC), with the result that international criminal justice can apply to some states more than others. The ICC has also been accused of being skewed in favor of powerful Global North and colonial powers and representing an extension of colonial justice.
While on paper, international conventions create a legal framework for dealing with global crime issues, the lack of effective enforcement mechanisms and political and state sovereignty issues that restrict enforcement activity have the potential to undermine effective international justice.
Keywords
Subjects
- Courts
- International Crime