The Impact of Domestic Law on International Law

Abstract

The birth of international law falls behind domestic law, therefore as a developing legal system, international law is naturally influenced by the more mature domestic law system, both in terms of domestic public law and domestic private law. Modern international law is essentially international law with a sense of domestic private law, but the increasingly frequent and complex international interactions required the establishment of a hierarchical and centralized structure shown in domestic public law. The development of international law by drawing on domestic public law faces certain obstacles and poses risks that should be given due attention. This study starts with the theoretical foundation of domestic law influencing international law, in both private and public sense, followed by analyses of real-world practice, and concluded with the major issues such as the different interpretations of equality in domestic and international laws. This article concludes that international law was first developed based on domestic private law with a focus on equality, and then shifted towards domestic public law by emphasizing hierarchy and centralization. International constitutionalism is also discussed in this study using some judgements made by the International Court of Justice.