Communication Flows in International Economic Law

Engaging with Public International Law in Domestic Systems

 

International Law is silent on how States implement it in their domestic systems. But alongside the question of implementation as such, although related, is also how International Law is engaged with at the domestic level. Engagement with International Law is integral to foreign relations and therefore of critical importance. This engagement needs to take place at different levels of domestic governance. First, the executive must be informed objectively of International Law to be able to make the proper policy choices that need to be made in foreign relations. Second, there is a functional need for the judiciary as well as various other branches of government that operate with International Law. Third, the population at large needs to have some sense of International Law to comprehend the country’s foreign relations affecting it. Fourth, all nationals engaged in international movement and transactions need a measure of familiarity with it. Fifth, there is the need to assimilate domestic practice to contribute to the development of General International Law. Sixth, there is an International Law discursive space, both at the national and international levels, that every State must surely engage in. In the circumstances, every State must cultivate a knowledge bank of this discipline. Universities need to cater for this demand in the teaching and research of the discipline. Importantly this knowledge bank must, like central banks, be ‘clinical’ in its set up and functioning, decoupled with the national political process. There cannot be any biases, compromises or carve outs.