Law and the Multiverse

International law is one area of the law that we haven’t talked about all that much yet, with the exception of this post on supervillain lair locations. We’ve also talked about immigration and even export control laws, but these are actually considered part of domestic law because their subject matter is essentially the management and control of national borders. True international law has to do with the law of nations, also known as “public international law” and conflict of laws, i.e. deciding which law applies in a given situation, known as “private international law.” International law also includes things like treaties and the UN, i.e. the agreements that nations have with each other in their sovereign capacities.

There are a number of places where comic book stories run up against various international law issues, including trans-national groups like S.H.I.E.L.D. and the actions of superheroes in other countries. Most of the issues we’ll discuss here have to do with public international law, as private international law is 1) way more technical, and 2) not nearly as controversial. Private international law grew out of international commerce to a significant degree, as merchants importing and exporting goods needed to be able to resolve disputes across and between international borders. While the status of human rights and national sovereignty are deeply ideological, merchants 1) mostly just want to know what the law is rather than what it ought to be, and 2) aren’t predisposed to tolerate long and drawn out theoretical disputes. They get in the way of business. So private international law is, by and large, pretty efficient. But as our heroes aren’t generally engaged in, say, the carriage of goods by sea, public international law is where our focus will lie.

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