International Relations
Globalisation drags up all sorts of contradictions, none the least the attitude of nation states to international law, as show by events in Australia this week.

As the execution by Singapore of an Australian drug courier approaches, there has been an increasingly desperate public clamour to have anappeal heard by the International Court of Justice.

It has spoken to an almost quaint faith that when one nation's legal system leaves us unsatisfied, surely there must be something we canappeal to, some higher authority to enforce justice.

At the same time as we are looking for salvation from the hangman, a ruling this week by the United Nation's International Labour Organisation that the Howard Government's construction laws breach
international treaties has been all but ignored.

The ILO's Governing Body ruled the laws, which can lead to workers being jailed for refusing to disclose the contents of union meetings, were a breach of core labour standards as laid out in ILO Conventions87 and 98, both of which have been ratified by Australia.

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