International Law as LawWhen you compare apples with pears, you are not making a fair comparison, but a disproportionate comparison. Often when discussing international law or trying to understand international law; many often attempt to compare international law with existing laws such as national law or domestic law. Making such disproportionate comparisons leads to many incorrect notions and attitudes towards international law. For an adequate comparison between international law and other laws, one should carefully examine the available facts. This essay will demonstrate the vitality of international law, in a world of nations that continue to grow in interdependence. Unlike municipal law, international law is a horizontal system designed to address the external interactions of states with each other; while municipal law represents a centralized system with various institutions. In the eyes of international law, states are recognized as sovereign and equal, although in reality some states are more powerful than others. Therefore, dealing with states of equal status makes it difficult to force a state to behave in a certain way. Municipal law on the other hand acts as the supreme law of the land and people of various states face criminal consequences for not adhering to the law established by the state. In the international arena agreements are made and states maintain these agreements to which they have agreed and expect other states involved to do the same. Indeed, what distinguishes the rules and principles of international law from “mere morality” is that they are accepted in practice as legally binding by States in their dealings because they are useful in reducing complexity and… half the paper. .....of common interest and its rewards. Chaos in such situations is ineffective; order is needed to develop a system that favors the interests of all parties involved. People and states are happy when their needs and desires are satisfied; it is when states feel threatened that they become non-cooperative. The deduction led to the conclusion that a society, even a society of states, cannot exist without laws governing it: any relationship, whether between two people or two nation-states, involves compromise. From the beginning of humanity, Adam and Eve, the union of the first society required rules; they were not free to fulfill their heart's desires, but to serve a higher purpose. Works Cited Peter Malanczuk. Akehurst's Modern Introduction to International Law. London: Routledge, Harper Collins Academic, 1997. “Society.” Merriam Webster Dictionary. 1997.