What is public international law, why would you study it, and where is the best place to study, intern or work abroad?

What is public international law?

• Public international law studies the rules, principles and institutions that shape relations between states, international organizations and other actors in the international community.
• The field is relevant where questions cross borders: peace and security, treaties, oceans, human rights, international responsibility, diplomacy, migration, trade, climate cooperation and armed conflict.
• Public international law often attracts people who want to understand how legal order functions without a single world government, and how law is used in negotiation, cooperation and dispute settlement.

What are the main reasons for being active in the field of public international law

• To understand how states create obligations through treaties, custom, institutions and diplomatic practice.
• To explore how legal arguments are used in international courts, tribunals, ministries, NGOs and intergovernmental organizations.
• To study global questions that cannot be solved by one country alone, such as conflict, environmental protection, maritime governance and human rights.
• To compare how international rules are interpreted in different legal cultures, political systems and regional contexts.
• To develop a careful way of reasoning about power, responsibility, sovereignty and public interest in an international setting.

What skills do you need to participate in public international law

• To analyse: the field depends on reading legal texts closely, comparing sources of law and distinguishing political arguments from legal obligations.
• To form an opinion: public international law often involves contested facts, competing interpretations and careful judgement about what law can realistically do.
• To communicate: legal work in international settings commonly requires clear writing, diplomatic language and the ability to explain complex rules across cultures.
• To have integrity: the discipline deals with public responsibility, state conduct and the credibility of institutions, making ethical consistency important.
• To be aware of your surroundings: legal questions are shaped by history, security concerns, regional politics and the institutional setting in which they arise.

What motivates people to study or intern in public international law

• Be and feel meaningful with a sense of purpose: the field is often connected to public interest questions such as peace, accountability, cooperation and protection.
• Be and feel involved: international legal work brings people close to debates about how societies, states and institutions respond to shared problems.
• Be and feel connected: the discipline naturally links legal systems, cultures, regions and organizations across borders.
• Be and feel independent and free: the field tends to appeal to people who value independent reasoning and are comfortable examining law from more than one national perspective.

What are the best countries and locations to study, intern or work in public international law abroad?

• Countries and cities with strong international legal institutions: The Netherlands, Geneva, Belgium.
• Countries with long diplomatic, treaty and public law traditions: France, United Kingdom: England, Scotland to Wales, Germany.
• Countries relevant to international organizations, multilateral policy and global governance: United States, Switzerland, Austria.
• Countries where regional law, development, rights and post-conflict governance are important study contexts: South Africa, Kenya, Colombia.
• Countries where maritime law, regional security and cross-border cooperation are visible themes: Singapore, Japan, Australia.

Where can you find work experience and vacancies for jobs, internships, and voluntary work in public international law abroad?

• Legal organizations and administrative work abroad: relevant for internships with law offices, legal aid organizations, courts, advocacy groups and organizations working with legal documentation.
• Government institutions and working in policy abroad: useful for those interested in ministries, embassies, public agencies and policy units dealing with treaties, diplomacy or international cooperation.
• Civil society organizations and social work abroad: relevant where legal questions connect to rights, accountability, displacement, humanitarian concerns or public interest advocacy.
• Research organizations and scientific work abroad: suitable for academic institutes, policy research centers and organizations that study international law, governance and institutions.
• Organizations for study and summaries: useful for building legal study experience, supporting educational content and learning how legal knowledge is structured and explained.

What are things to consider when studying or working abroad in public international law

• Legal systems differ in how they incorporate international law, so local constitutional rules and domestic legal culture often matter as much as international doctrine.
• Language skills can strongly affect access to documents, internships and field contexts, especially in diplomacy, human rights work and regional legal practice.
• Public international law often sits close to political sensitivity; careful wording, confidentiality and awareness of institutional roles are important.
• Some work may involve emotionally difficult subjects, including armed conflict, displacement, accountability or serious human rights violations.
• Experience in the field is often built gradually through research, writing, administrative support, moot courts, clinics, policy work or internships rather than through one fixed route.

Further depth: what is public international law as a discipline?

What are the main features of public international law

Public international law, sometimes described as international public law, concerns the legal framework for relations between states and other international actors. It is less centralized than most national legal systems, but it still provides a shared language for rights, duties, responsibility and cooperation.

• Sovereign equality: recognized states are treated as equal legal persons, even when their political power, territory or economic influence differs greatly.
• Consent and legal obligation: states become bound through treaties, customary international law, general principles and other recognized sources of international law.
• Public international interest: the field often addresses matters that affect the wider international community, such as peace, security, human rights and shared resources.
• Decentralized enforcement: compliance is encouraged through diplomacy, reciprocity, reputation, international institutions, courts and political pressure rather than a single global police power.

What are important sub-areas of public international law

The discipline contains several sub-fields, each with its own concepts and institutions. They often overlap in practice, especially when disputes involve territory, resources, armed conflict, human rights or international organizations.

• Law of treaties: the rules on how states create, interpret, apply, amend and end legally binding international agreements.
• Law of the sea: the legal framework for oceans, maritime zones, navigation, fisheries, seabed resources and marine cooperation.
• State responsibility: the principles used to determine when a state has committed an internationally wrongful act and what consequences follow.
• Law of international organizations: the rules concerning bodies such as the United Nations, including their powers, procedures, membership and institutional responsibilities.
• International dispute settlement: the peaceful handling of disputes through negotiation, mediation, arbitration, adjudication and other procedures.
• Law of armed conflict: the body of rules that regulates conduct during armed conflict and seeks to protect civilians, prisoners and other persons not taking part in hostilities.
• International human rights law: the legal protection of fundamental rights, especially through obligations placed on states and sometimes through regional or international mechanisms.

What are key concepts of public international law

• Sovereignty: the authority of a state over its territory and population, balanced by obligations under international law.
• Jurisdiction: the power of a state to prescribe, apply and enforce rules, subject to limits recognized internationally.
• State immunity: the principle that one state is generally protected from being sued before another state’s courts, with important exceptions.
• Treaties: formal international agreements that create binding legal obligations for the parties.
• Customary international law: rules that arise from general state practice accepted as law.
• International Law Commission: a United Nations body involved in the codification and progressive development of international law.
• International Court of Justice: the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, dealing mainly with legal disputes between states and advisory opinions.

Who are influential figures in public international law

• Hugo Grotius: a Dutch jurist often associated with early systematic thinking about the law of nations, war, peace and the rights and duties of states.
• Modern international legal scholars and practitioners: the field has also been shaped by judges, diplomats, treaty drafters, human rights lawyers and academics working across different regions and legal traditions.

Why is public international law important?

• It provides a framework for peaceful coexistence, diplomatic relations and the settlement of disputes between states.
• It creates a degree of predictability in international relations by giving states shared rules and procedures.
• It helps define the rights, duties and responsibilities of states in relation to one another and to the wider international community.
• It supports cooperation through international organizations and legal regimes that address problems beyond national borders.
• It offers a legal vocabulary for accountability when states or other actors breach international obligations.

How is public international law applied in practice?

• Diplomacy and negotiation: states use legal principles when drafting treaties, resolving disputes and explaining their positions internationally.
• International organizations: bodies such as the United Nations and the World Trade Organization rely on international legal rules to carry out their mandates.
• Courts and tribunals: international and regional bodies apply legal principles to disputes, advisory questions and accountability processes.
• Domestic courts: national courts may apply or interpret international law when it has been incorporated into domestic law or is relevant to a legal dispute.
• Policy and advocacy: governments, NGOs, researchers and civil society organizations use international law to assess conduct, develop arguments and support institutional change.