Register or Login

Andries Botha answers the following question

This video is copyleft.
We recommend the latest Apple Quicktime Player.

Andries Botha's biography
Send this video to a friend
Download this video (right click)

Question

what is the purpose of public international law if there are no effective enforcement mechanisms to apply it? Maria Kyriacou


Answer

Andries Botha: Look, Maria I don’t know if I can really answer this, I’m not a - I don’t know enough about public international law. But sometimes international law is put in place in order for it to embody a principal rather than a practice. You know there have been examples where people have been brought to book, where the international legal community, or the international public opinion if you wish, has forced transgressors to be held account, when local government has failed to do so. But I think it is a very valid observation. There is no real will, or ability, to govern, or to have international laws governing that which local laws tend to ignore. So if a government tends to ignore a law, then it’s very difficult to get an international collegiate to persuade or to coerce a national government. But there are precedents for it. And I think the principal should exist, and we should keep working towards trying to convince –trying to add value or power or empower the idea that government will be held accountable. I mean, in South Africa, where I come from, the global community responded, and isolated the Apartheid government. Sanctions are used in that manner. So I do believe international sanction is important if a national government is transgressive …