An ancient debate is whether international law is a law or not. Many jurists opined on the mentioned topic. However, the debate persists in the contemporary world. International law is a decentralized legal system based on treaties, customary law, and institutional mechanisms. International law lacks enforcement mechanisms, such as a standing police force or binding sanctions. So, to be effective, international laws have to acquire some characteristics and add some new characteristics. Nowadays, most of the powerful states violate international laws to achieve their own purposes. But the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court cannot take any effective action except a decree. There is no particular authority to execute the decree of the international courts, which can help maintain international peace.
In the contemporary world, the biggest and most recognized international organization is the United Nations. It has two international courts for international disputes. But it lacks of law enforcement team of its own. It cannot execute any order on its own power. It orders the Security Council to execute its proposals. If any members of the Security Council do not execute the proposal, then the proposal will in written just, not in practice. Recently, we have seen that the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin, yet he is unaffected by the warrant. Because of a lack of executive force.
So, the United Nations should constitute a force to execute the sanctions of the courts. The force must consist of individuals of different nationalities. Because a unilateral national may have a bias towards their homeland. Recruitment should be overseen by an independent committee appointed by the ICC and ICJ. For the effectiveness of the force, the member states of the UN have to delegate power to the UN and swear to obey it.
A common scenario is that the interests of the permanent states of the Security Council are different. So, most of the proposals of the United Nations are not executable being their interests are different. A resolution needs 9 affirmative votes, including no veto from any permanent member. A single veto of any permanent member state can cancel a proposal. That’s why many welfare decisions, in the past, have been discarded due to internal conflict within the states.
The United Nations needs an independent and executive law enforcement force. This must be empowered by the member states. So that they can arrest any international criminal and punish them. It could collaborate with other international organizations. It is worth mentioning here that this must be protected from any kind of abuse. So that no country can abuse this power against its opposition. An agreement must occur among the member states for the functionality and empowerment of the force. Without these kinds of agreements, the idea of international justice cannot be able to work. In contravening the agreement, strict sanctions must be imposed on the related states.
Alongside, some executive power of the courts would be defined in the constitution of the courts with the consent of the parties. This power should be at least equal to a free and fair court of a state. The force will be accountable to the courts. Where the executive branch of the United Nations never interferes. In contravening this condition, the related states will be sanctioned. There may be some more innovative ideas to be added.
But the whole plan of international justice cannot be effective without the reformation of the Security Council. The excessive power of the permanent states of the Security Council should be decreased and redistributed among the non-permanent member states. The power of veto of the permanent members should also be decreased. Because this power impedes many welfare decisions. It may be replaced by the voting system. Different amounts of votes may be required in different types of decisions. Thus, the veto power or the number of permanent states of the Security Council is not equitable for the regional balance of power. Two countries of the permanent states are from Europe. Whereas, only China from Asia, in spite of being the biggest continent, and Africa are deprived of these kinds of power, and also South America. So, it should be distributed among all the continents. So that, regional balance of power remains stable.
In the summary, as a human being, all the nations of religion, region, caste, and languages should be treated equally in the eyes of international law. To prevent conflict and maintain peace, international law should be imposed equally on all nations. None should count as superior to the others.