Introduction

There are two kinds of international law: private and public. Private international law is concerned, primarily on the plane of relations between individuals, with the resolution of conflicts between the laws of different States. It is not relevant for the purposes of this book and will not be considered any further. Public international law is the system governing relations between States and covers every aspect of inter-State relations such as jurisdiction, claims to territory, use of the sea and State responsibility, to name but a few. Public international law can be subdivided into treaty law – in which the obligations of States are enshrined in and derived from a written agreement, usually known as a treaty or convention – and customary law, which embraces all international law not specifically included in treaties. Since this book is concerned exclusively with treaties and conventions which protect wildlife, this chapter is limited to a description of some of the principal aspects of the law relating to treaties.

Nature of treaties

Most States have a supreme law-making body – a Parliament, a Soviet, a National Assembly or similar organisation – to adopt laws for their citizens. The international community, however, has no legislature capable of formulating laws binding on individual States or their peoples without their individual consent.