The second course of the specialization EVALUATING PROBLEMS will show you how humans think and how to utilize different disciplinary approaches to tackle problems more effectively. It advances your knowledge of your own field by teaching you to look at it in new ways. EVALUATING PROBLEMS is constructed in the following way: Week I. “Thinking about Thinking” – How problem solving evolved in nature, how the mechanics of our brains work, and the psychological biases that can emerge when we think. Week II. “Philosophy, Science, and Problem Solving” – How humans have historically approached problem solving, from ancient times to the present. Week III. “Approaching Problems in the Natural Sciences” – How people in the natural sciences deconstruct problems. Week IV. “Statistics and Problem Solving” – How statistics can be used to evaluate problems and think critically. Week V. “Approaching Problems in the Humanities” – How people in the social sciences and humanities deconstruct problems. Week VI. “Evaluating the Anthropocene” – How to evaluate the problems of the Anthropocene.
International Law and Problem Solving
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Evaluating Problems
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Approaching Problems in the Humanities
In this module, we will examine the similarities and differences regarding how we approach complex problems in different areas of the humanities. Given the extreme complexity of human society, a multi-faceted approach is not surprising, but we shall also examine the common threads that run through all approaches.
Conheça os instrutores
David BakerAssociate Lecturer
Big History Institute
David ChristianProfessor
Big History Institute
Shawn RossAssociate Professor
Big History Institute
The big question for this segment is what are the major problems that arise in
international law disputes and how do international bodies work to solve them?
[MUSIC]
When we are thinking about the major problems that arise in international
law disputes,
we first need to give some thought to what we mean by international law disputes.
There are many different controversies that we can be dealing with potentially.
We can start with disputes between states.
And when I'm talking about states, I don't mean Kentucky, California, Tasmania or
Queensland.
Rather, we're thinking about different countries, New Zealand,
Togo, China, France.
Disputes can arise between these states across diverse issues.
We might have trade disputes.
Which country is putting up barriers preventing access to markets?
Can the EU ban the sale of seal products because of the pain and
distress caused to the animals?
We can have disputes about the environment, the uses of the oceans,
where the boundary lies between different countries.
Which country owns a particular island or rock in the middle of the ocean?
This has been a key controversy in the South China Sea.
International law disputes also arise between States and Foreign Nationals.
If a company is trying to run a business in another country, and
the government confiscates assets or changes its regulations, to the company's
financial detriment, you might be dealing with an international investment dispute.
A country might challenge the actions of foreign nationals in its territory
if they are there to fight for a rebel group,
they might be foreign fighters going to support or they work clandestinely for
another government against the interest of the country.
Could they be spies or they're to trained forces operating against the government as
we saw in the Contra Affair in Nicaragua in the 1980s.
An international law dispute might occur between the state and its own nationals.
What if the government is violating the human rights of its own citizens?
What if the government perpetrates a genocide against ethnic
groups living in its own borders?
As we saw in Bosnia against the Bosnian Muslims in the mid 1990s.
Then we have disputes under international human rights law and
international criminal law.
An international law dispute could be dealing with some big issues but
from a legal perspective they most usually break down into disputes about the rules,
how those rules are interpreted, and who might be bound by the rules.
The rules that we are dealing with are usually those set out in treaties.
These are agreements between states and might be multilateral, regional, or
bilateral.
Treaties are usually our clearest source of international law, but
the rules might also be part of customary international law.
Customary international law usually refers to a combination of state practice and
that practice occurring because a state believes it to be the law
at the relevant time.
It can be hard to identify customary international law and
we can refer to a lot of different international activity,
like general assembly resolutions, diplomatic notes from governments,
declarations by international organizations.
All of those activities help us to determine if there is a customary law rule
in place or not.
We might also find rules within domestic legislation,
particularly the domestic laws that implement international treaties.
But even when we know what the rules are,
we still have questions about how those rules are interpreted.
We might find different rules applying to the same situation.
For example, Chile might impose restrictions on harvesting swordfish as
part of the conservation and management of its fish stocks.
But the EU might see this as a trade dispute instead.
States might interpret the rules differently and
we might have to look to see if there are any exceptions to the rules that apply,
depending on the particular situation.
We might end up with a dispute about who is bound by the rules.
Not every state is a party to every treaty, in some instances we're dealing
with new situations and the existing rules don't fit very well.
If you think about the time that humans first started going into space,
we didn't have rules about who owned outer space, who would be responsible for
what happened out there, or who was responsible if spacecraft or
satellites fell out of orbit and crashed onto Earth.
To prevent disputes, we had to draft new rules.
And when it comes to who can draft these rules, who interprets them and
who can solve these problems, we need to think about a number of key actors,
not just states.
Intergovernmental organizations are important mechanisms for
states to get together and work to solve issues.
Non governmental organizations can become involved, to bring attention to an issue,
and seek to bring a state's conduct into line with international obligations.
Individuals in multinational corporations may be able to use investment mechanisms
to access dispute settlement procedures.
They can bring their complaints about their treatment to human rights
committees, or to potentially access regional courts.
To solve disputes, the main emphasis in international law is to do so peacefully.
Obviously it doesn't always work that way.
Under the UN Charter, there are a range of different dispute settlement techniques,
ranging from negotiation and mediation, to engagement in international law regional
organizations, through to arbitration or adjudication.
Since the end of the Cold War, there's been a significant increase in the number
of international courts and tribunals available to resolve international
disputes, especially for financial, trade, and investment matters.
We also have different international courts and other bodies that can deal with
human rights, international crimes, and the law of the sea.
Ultimately, international law is a key point of reference for actors in
the international system to justify their conduct and to assert their interests.
There is no shortage of tools, mechanisms, processes, organisations of all varieties
that an be involved in solving major problems in international law.
Critical in this regard, to finish with some alliteration, is cooperation,
coordination and communication among these actors all necessary and
possible, with political will.
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