First coined by the English philosopher Jeremy Bentham, international law is usually recognized as the law governing affairs between sovereign states, the principal matter of international law. Public international law deals only with rights issues involving multiple nations, or with nations and their peoples, or with issues of other nations. It differs from private international law, which deals with dissimilarity between private, natural and/or legal entities, as it arises from circumstances that have a noteworthy relationship with more than one nation. (Brownlee, 2008) International law contains the necessary and typical notions of law in national legal systems: “status, property, obligation and wrong”. (Hall, 2010) According to Ian Brownlee, this also includes substantive law, procedure, process and remedies. (2008) International law is deeply rooted in the agreement of the nation states that represent the system. There are six main essential sections of international law: international economic law, international criminal law, international environmental law, international security law, international humanitarian law (or law of war), diplomatic law and international human rights law. (Hall, 2010) However, conventional and customary laws are the primary sources of international law. Customary law and laws established by an international agreement have equivalent authority just like international law. (Schmidt, 2008) Political parties can give higher precedence to another source by agreement. On the contrary, various norms of international law are recognized by the international population as "authoritative, which do not allow any derogation from the rule". (Brownlee, 2008) Such rules… middle of paper… multilateral agreements that govern the interactions of nations, international businesses, and non-governmental organizations around the world. Without such laws and organizations, many societies would find themselves with extremely corrupt governments and the risk of being in ongoing war with other nations would be highly likely. Works Cited Brownlee, I. (2008). Principles of public international law. Birsfelden: Oxford University Press.Hall, K. (2010). Jus gentium-law of people. Unpublished manuscript, Department of Law, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Retrieved from http://www.law.harvard.edu/index.htmlSchmidt, S. (2008). What are the causes of international conflicts?. Mason: Cengage Learning Publications A public administration program. (2010). Retrieved from http://unpan.org/DPADM/Home/tabid/420/lingual/en-US/Default.aspx