US Obligation Essay

Despite the existence of international agreements and laws on state crimes and on the rights of citizens, it is impossible to forget that the states’ sovereignty play a pivotal role in International Law. Acknowledge of international law is a faculty made by each state on their own. Moreover, the US defends jurisprudence made by their own Constitution, so no treaty, convention or agreement comes into play when the US discuses International Law. As many other states, the US believe their sovereignty and jurisdiction is supreme. One example of what I have stated before is the case between The Republic of Nicaragua v. The United States of America from 1986, the US argued that the ICJ had no jurisdiction to rule over them and blocked any ruling of the ICJ in the UN Security Council. This becomes evident when Mr. Donovan relies upon on the US Constitution and cases within the US as his main source of lawmaking.

Nevertheless, I must recall what had been stated before: The US Constitution overall. Only the US Constitution provides obligation to US officials. To make the concept clear, “Obligation means that states or other actors are bound by a rule or commitment or by a set of commitments” . The importance of obligation is that it is legally binding, that is, everybody has to comply with law. The problem with treaties or conventions, despite taking into account that pacta sunt servanda , is that they are not legally binding in their entirety, there are various mechanisms to escape those agreements and even the interpretations that each country makes is biased to their own interest. We have to take into account that “it is widely accepted that states expect some formally binding ‘political treaties’ not to be observed if interests or circumstances change” . Any time, the US could have argued that their own safety was in danger and even execute Mr. Abel (which was the popular