International law serves in a world of independent and sovereign states.

International law has many different features of its own. These features relate to the creation and application of the legal rules, since the international community has a different way of organization than do national communities.

The rules of international law are created by those who must apply or obey these rules. These are basically states and to a limited extent other international actors.

States themselves have the authority to apply sanctions provided by international law. 

Jeremy Bentham (1748-1831) was the mastermind of the term international law which was eventually to replace the older phrase law of nations.

Sources of law, then, can be divided into two groups: binding (primary) and subsidiary sources.

The 1933 Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States declares in Article 1.

The control of territory is the essence of a state. This is the basis of the central notion of ‘territorial sovereignty’, establishing the exclusive competence to take legal and factual measures within that territory and prohibiting foreign governments from exercising authority in the same area without consent.

There are two groups of states in terms of independence. Fully independent states and partially independent states. The former has total independence from external interference. Partially independent states cannot carry out all their internal and external affairs on their own. Protected states (protectorates) and some states under trusteeship could be given as examples of this category.

There are states with full powers and states with limited powers. Both are recognized as independent states, but the powers of some states are limited by international treaties.

In states with a united system, the central government and local governments share the governing power. Federations and confederations are the typical examples of states with a united system.

There is a difference between the recognition of a state and the recognition of a government. The recognition of a state acknowledges that the entity fulfils the criteria of statehood. On the other hand, there may be a case of a rebel group taking hold of a small territory, with little chance of occupying the entire country.

There are two theories on this; constitutive and declaratory. According to the constitutive theory, a state or government does not exist for the purposes of international law until it is recognized. However, the constitutive theory is opposed by the declaratory theory, according to which recognition has no legal effects. 

An international organization is an institution established by a treaty between two or more states. International organizations often are established by states through international agreements and their powers are limited to those conferred on them in their constituent document. International organizations have a limited degree of international personality, especially in relation to member States.

In any legal system, there is liability for failure to observe obligations imposed by its rules. Such liability is called 'state responsibility' in international law.

The six circumstances are; Consent (Article 20), Self-defense (Article 21), Countermeasures (Article 22), Force Majeure (Article 23), Distress (Article 24) and Necessity (Art. 25).

'Force majeure' involves a situation where the state in question is in effect compelled to act in a manner not in conformity with the requirements of an international obligation incumbent upon it.

A state that is responsible for an internationally wrongful act, is under an obligation to make restitution, that is, to re-establish the situation which existed before the wrongful act was committed, provided and to the extent that restitution is not materially impossible; and does not involve a burden out of all proportion to the benefit deriving from restitution instead of compensation.

Acceptable, peaceful means of dispute settlement between states are; negotiation, enquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, any other peaceful means.

Arbitration as one of the legal means of dispute settlement is binding. Arbitrators are elected by the parties. In this respect, it differs from the court mechanism. As in adjudication, the consent of all parties is required for arbitration. Typically, the parties negotiate to agree on the applicable law, the composition of the arbitration organ, and the extent and content of the case to be arbitrated.