Abstracts Law

Fontes do direito em perspectiva comparada entre o direito interno e o direito internacional público

by Igor Maestrelli, 1996- Zarnicinski

Abstract: International law is misunderstood due to being very different from municipal law. Its subjects are different and its sources are different. In order to understand public international law, one may compare it to municipal law and use their contrasts as to elucidate the workings of international law. Possible reasons for municipal law being binding (sovereignty, institutionality) are compared to reasons for international law being binding (positivism, naturalism). The sources of municipal law (statutes, custom, precedent) are compared to the sources of international law (custom, treaties, general principles, judicial decisions and legal scholarship). The hierachies established between different sources in both sets of law are also examined. At last, the reasons for validity in municipal law (according to Hans Kelsen and H. L. A Hart) and in international law (according also to Kelsen and to Neil MacCormick) are compared. The study concludes defending Neil MacCormick’s perspective on international law as a polycentric legal order, which has no need for sovereign beings, and international public law is examined as an autonomous legal tradition, marked by consensus between its subjects and not by sovereign orders.