New Delhi: Dr. M. Hamid Ansari, Vice-President of India inaugurated the International Conference on International Law in the Contemporary World organized by the Indian Society of International Law (ISIL) here today.

The conference is being organized to commemorate the Golden Jubilee celebration of ISIL.

Inaugurating the conference, Dr. Ansari said, "International law takes shape with the dawning of the realization that anarchy cannot be the operative principle in the community of states. This necessitated the enunciation of rules."

The last three decades have witnessed the metamorphosis of international law from a tool for the regulation of formal diplomacy between states and coordination of international intercourse to an elaborate canvas covering complex areas of transnational concerns such as trade, economy and development, nuclear energy, outer space, human rights and environment.

"In this 60th year of the Republic, it is relevant to recall that Article 51 of our Constitution exhorts the state to foster respect for international law and treaty obligations," said Dr. Ansari.

Despite considerable progress, a fuller realization of Fundamental Rights and of the Directive Principles incorporated in the Constitution is hampered by the enormity and diversity of the challenges in a country of over a billion people. It is therefore relevant to ask how and where the norms and principles of international law can be invoked to address these questions.

He opined that the problems created by the dramatic expansion of the scope and instrumentalities of international law should not blind us to the significant success achieved in ameliorating the welfare of mankind.

International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law have expanded their scope and application to become one of the most comprehensively regulated branches of international law. A great number of their rules have been recognized as part of customary international law.

The ISIL has fostered the study of international law in the country. Its publications, with a focus on the concerns of the developing countries of Asia and Africa, have been instrumental in the evolution of some aspects of international law.

For a variety of reasons, India has not signed or ratified some treaties that are accepted by most members of the international community. There are a number of instances in which the Indian judiciary has relied upon international conventions and covenants in interpreting constitutional provisions and stating the law where legislation did not exist and where more can be done.

The problems created by the dramatic expansion of the scope and instrumentalities of international law should not blind the people to the significant success achieved in ameliorating the welfare of mankind. International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law have expanded their scope and application to become one of the most comprehensively regulated branches of international law. A great number of their rules have been recognized as part of customary international law.

The objective of international law, in the final analysis, is orderly discourse among states for the good of humanity. This is best furthered in conditions of peace which, as an American statesman put it, 'is a coin which has two sides - one is the avoidance of the use of force and the other is the creation of conditions of justice'.

At his concluding remark, Dr. Ansari said, "Anniversaries are occasions for introspection, for measuring the distance traveled and for realizing that the road ahead does have receding horizons. It can only be traversed on the basis of moral clarity."