International law in a globalized world : a case study of the United Nations

Abstract

The mission of international law at the present time is to make its specific contribution to solving the fundamental questions relating to the development of a holistic view of the world through combining national interests and to the tasks of survival of the international community with lifting up the rights and freedoms of humankind, war on terrorism, environmental protection, and the solving of regional conflicts. The concept of globalization has fuelled an extraordinary shift in the nature of international lawmaking. Contemporary international law has expanded far beyond its classical state-centred dimensions, such as war and diplomacy, to regulate matters affecting how people conduct their daily affairs. Globalization has posed in a new way the question of relationships between nation states and the international community, national and international law, and highlighted the new aspects of what seem to be traditional ideas and concepts of sovereignty, peaceful coexistence, conventional principles and norms, etc International law scholars have joined the globalist discourse to analyse the effects of 'globalization' on international law. Globality insists on looking beyond the traditional vision of international law on a flat, horizontal plane to reconfigure theoretical foundations to reflect the dynamic multidimensional realities.