LAW

The World’s Legal Playbook ⚖️

What happens when law applies to more than one country, or when nations want to create global rules? International Law is made up of agreements and norms, which set standards for relationships between different countries. This can include issues such as environmental protection, human rights, and the laws of war. Its goal is to promote peace by resolving global disputes and encouraging collaboration.

💡 Things to consider

• Who Makes the Rules? The United Nations (UN) brings countries together through treaties and resolutions, forming the rules of International Law. These must be signed and agreed upon before they become official laws. Rules can also be formed through ‘custom’, when certain norms are consistent between nations and those nations consider the rules to be legally binding. Treaties can be used to put customary law into writing, effectively making the law more ‘formal’. Can international rules move fast enough to deal with issues like climate change and technology?

  

•  Why It Matters in Daily Life: International Law shapes the world by creating freedoms and influences through which countries can pass their own laws to uphold. For example, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed by all 193 member states and has paved the way for rights such as education, speech, and equality. It has also been important for promoting environmentalism; the Montreal Protocol is an agreement that has phased out the use of chemicals damaging to the ozone layer.

  

  Universal Declaration of Human Rights

• How It Works: The International Court of Justice (ICJ) handles disputes between countries. For example, if two countries cannot agree on where their borders fall, the ICJ will settle the issue in court. Serious global offences, such as war crimes, are handled by the International Criminal Court (ICC). The key factor in the enforcement process is consent by the nations involved, meaning one country cannot bring a claim forward on its own. Without agreement to the Rome Statute, powerful nations such as the USA, China, Russia, and Israel cannot be held accountable by the ICC. Do you think that international courts should be able to act without the consent of the nations involved?

🔎 Find out more

• UN Introduction to International Law and Justice

• More on International Law

• Differences between the ICJ and ICC

🍒 The cherry on top

• 🤖 AI and Animal Sentience: Think chatbots can “feel”? This article discusses ideas of how convincing talk from AI is often just mimicry (“gaming”), and that real, gaming-proof tests for sentience could come from studying diverse animal minds and their markers of experience — then translating those deep, shared architectures to AI. Great if you’re into Computer Science, Biology, and Philosophy of Mind.

• 🖼️ Manet vs. Monet: Think you can spot the difference between these two Impressionist greats? Learn what really sets their styles apart with this fun, interactive site from Google Arts & Culture, which challenges you to distinguish between works by Edouard Manet and Claude Monet, two of the best-known French artists of the 19th century who are often confused. Great if you like Art!

• ❄️ Finding Absolute Zero: Absolute zero is the coldest possible temperature, but nothing in the universe has ever reached it. This short video explains how scientists at Imperial College London are using lasers to cool molecules to within millionths of a degree of the limit, unlocking strange quantum behaviours that could power the computers of the future. Great if you’re into Physics.

👀 Keep your eyes peeled for…

• Thursday 4th September

  • King’s College Cambridge Personal Statements Webinar

• Monday 8th September

  • University of Cambridge Preparing for Open Days Webinar

🗳️ Poll