On today's podcast, we learn that there are severe limitations to the effectiveness of international law.

Center for Civic Education

International law has been traditionally thought of as applying to relationships between nations, but individuals have at least some status under international law.

Center for Civic Education

International law can be defined as the rules that govern how nations interact with each other.

Center for Civic Education

The president has a great deal of constitutional authority over diplomacy, including the authority to receive ambassadors, thereby establishing diplomatic relations.

Center for Civic Education

The debate over the president's war powers goes back to Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton and the Barbary Wars, which began in 1801.

Center for Civic Education

Treaties made by the federal government are the supreme law of the land. As such, they limit the powers of states.

Center for Civic Education

Two-thirds of the Senate must approve any treaty negotiated by the president. But originally, the Framers of the Constitution assumed that treaty-making power would reside in the Senate, not the executive.

Center for Civic Education

Treaty-making is a shared power. Treaties are negotiated by the president with the assistance of the State Department. The Senate has the power to ratify treaties, and funds for their implementation are provided by Congress.

Center for Civic Education

Letters of marque and reprisal were historically used by Congress to allow private raids on merchant ships of enemy nations.

Center for Civic Education

The Framers of the Constitution debated which branch of government should have the power to make war. They ultimately decided that Congress should have the power to declare war, but that the president would be commander in chief.

Center for Civic Education