Family law.

Family law deals with all aspects of legal rights and obligations within the family unit. It covers a vast field: marriages, annulments, divorces, separations, premarital agreements, child support and custody, property division and alimony, visitation rights, child discipline, establishing paternity, living together, and more.

All countries have limitations on how old a person must be before getting married. As a rule, both the man and the woman must be at least 18 years old to marry without parental consent. And there is no upper age limitation on marriages.

You can’t marry just anybody. Your spouse-to be must be a member of opposite sex and you can’t marry certain close relatives. You can have only one spouse at a time, otherwise you will be guilty of bigamy.

An annulment is a legal declaration that a marriage never existed. The major grounds for annulment are: an underage party, an incestuous marriage and bigamy. The difference between a divorce and an annulment is this: in a divorce, a valid marriage is legally ended, while an annulment means that “marriage” never existed.

The divorce procedure may be lengthy, especially if one spouse doesn’t want to get divorce, or if there are children. The reasons to divorce may be: adultery, unreasonable behavior, living apart and so on.

Before the court issue a divorce it should determine child custody, financial provision for the children’s welfare.

Child custody is an issue only if there is a disagreement between the parents on who gets custody. While awarding custody the judge focuses on the welfare of the child. Sometimes neither parent is fit to take care of child. In such case, the judge may award custody to grandparents or other relatives. If no suitable relative can be found, the child is placed in a public institution or a foster home.

Visitation rights are awarded to the parent who does not get custody of the children.

Child support is the amount of monthly payment made by the parent not having custody of the children. The obligation to support a child ends only when the child reaches the age of majority or becomes emancipated.

As a rule community property is split into equal parts. Separate property remains the property of the spouse who owns to it. Alimony is money that one spouse pays to the other after the divorce.

International law.

International law is the body of legal rules that are applied between sovereign states and other entities having international personality. International public law differs from private international law, which deals with the differences between the municipal laws of different countries.

International law has developed from the necessity of nations to coexist peacefully.

The main sources of international law are: international customary law, treaties, and general principles of law recognized by civilized nations.

Customary law includes some main fundamental principles such as: sovereignty, recognition, consent, good faith, freedom of the sees, international responsibility, and self-defense.

Another source of international law is treaties. Treaties are legally binding agreement between and among subjects of international law. The main international rules governed by treaties are: territory, diplomatic law, and immunity; the protection of nationals abroad; freedom of commerce and navigation; extradition and asylum; and succession to international rights and obligations.

The third source of international law is the general principles of law, recognized by civilized nations. They include the following principles: 1) to settle international disputes by peaceful means; 2) to cooperate with one another; 3) equal rights and self-determination of people and so on.

General principles are regarded as a secondary source of international law. Unlike treaties and customary law, general principles are divided from domestic law.

States have traditionally been recognized as the sole subjects of international law, but this situation has been changed. Now international organizations and individuals are also subjects of international law having limited capacity.