No "international" democracy means no "international" law.

The efforts to regulate mines and such are admirable, but the fact is it's doomed to fail since there really are no international laws at all.

Since there is no democratically elected international body with the power to legislate any so-called "international" laws, no democratically elected executive or police organization with the power to enforce such laws, and no democratically elected international judiciary to adjucate charges and claims, for all intents and purposes there really is no "international law."

It's a myth propagated by the so-called "great powers" and global corporations who want everybody to think that there already are rules and laws regulating their activities, so that they won't take the measures necessary to establish same. It's a hype. Whatever "laws" there are, are all made by appointed people operating entirely without any popular or regulated oversight.

This applies to virtually all international organizations, beginning with the UN and G8 of course, and extending to the International Court of Justice, the World Bank, the IMF, the WTO, the WHO, TRIPS and other copyright and patent groups, and so on.

They are all operating without any established, legitimate authority, and without any clearly established legal processes and procedures. No one's really in charge, no one really has any authority to deal with problems. It's all based on the notion of voluntary compliance by each country, providing they find it convenient to do so.

Nowhere is this lack more urgent than in the environment. The fish stocks, and the oceans themselves, are going to die unless we establish an international body with the power to protect them. And one armed with the power to arrest individuals and corporations, along with the power to tax in order to finance their activities. And PDQ, I'd say.

Money laundering for terrorists, drug dealers, arms merchants and so is another area that very desperately needs international regulation. Also PDQ, I think. See this article in the Observer, Drowning in a sea of dirty money, about the inability of local police to cope with the crimes of international syndicates.

Nobody wants an all-powerful world government, me included. But the only alternative is to allow the most powerful and wealthiest international groups, ie the corporations, to set their own rules and regulate themselves. The unelected IMF, WTO and World Bank are basically operating as an unelected world government, and in doing so causing an enormous amount of damage.

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