Learn More About International Law in Institute, West Virginia

Institute is an unincorporated community on the Kanawha River in Kanawha County, West Virginia, USA. The community lies off of Interstate 64 and West Virginia Route 25, and has grown to intermingle with nearby Dunbar. Institute is home to West Virginia State University (formerly the West Virginia Colored Institute, the source of the town's toponym) West Virginia State Community and Technical College, and the West Virginia State Police Academy. It was also the site of an August 2008 chemical plant explosion that killed one and injured another at the Praxair facility. The community is the location of the prehistoric Shawnee Reservation Mound, one of three remaining Adena-era earthwork mounds and enclosures found in an eight-mile stretch along the river. It was also called Fairgrounds Mound and Poorhouse Mound. It is located in Shawnee Regional Park. This mound is about 20’ high and 80’ in basal diameter, but was originally 25’ high and greater than 80’ in diameter. These mounds originally numbered more than 50 and there were ten enclosures when inventoried in the late 19th century by the Bureau of Ethnology. They were likely built approximately 300 BCE to 200 CE.

What is international law?

Private International law (or conflict of laws) is a set of rules of procedural law which determine which legal system and the law of which jurisdiction apply to a given legal dispute. They typically apply when a legal dispute has a foreign element such as a contract agreed by parties located in different countries. Private International Law attorneys represent clients in legal disputes involving citizens and businesses in other countries.

Attorneys who practice Public International Law handle cases involving legal and practical relationships between nations -- including issues like agreements and treaties between nations, international trade regulation, and human rights.