What are the legal issues when submitting work to publishers?

Your work must be your work. Don't submit anything that someone else has written, not even if you just copied a few sentences. Even if you changed them. There are companies out there that can run automated checks on your work to see if they can find something in it that even remotely looks like someone else wrote it. If that happens, your reputation can be ruined before it even started.

is there a risk of having my work stolen?

Not really. Think about it from the thieves point of view. If you work is bad, it won't sell so it doesn't make sense to steal it. If it's good, and they make a fortune, you will surely sue to get your money. Chances are that you will make it in court.

Either way, if your work is incredibly good or bad, there is only a small chance that someone will steal it. Stop worrying, put your energy into making your work better.

How can you protect yourself from this?

If someone really sets his/her mind to ripping you off, then there is little you can do. The point is not to be paranoid. What are the realistic chances that someone will steal your work?

There is also another side of the coin: If a publisher is accused to steal, that is very bad for their reputation as well.

Is there an international "law" for this or is it country-specific?

There is no International law and you should be happy about that. Copyright is a tool to make publishers rich, not you.

In 1800 in Germany, there was no copyright. England, OTOH, had a very strict copyright. The net effect: Ten times more books were published in Germany, they were cheap and many authors could live from their work (high demand for books -> better bargaining power for authors).

In England, only a few authors could live from their work, books were very expensive (one quarter of your monthly income for a single book). Publishers set the prices, there were many authors but only a few books got ever published because they sold so bad because they were so expensive, etc.

Source: Wem nutzt das Urheberrecht?

[EDIT] If you need a cheap and reliable way to prove that something is your work, here is an idea: When you mail the work to someone, mail a registered copy to yourself. Do not open the envelope, don't tamper with it in any way.

If you need to go to court, you can present the letter there and have the court open it to prove that the work is yours.
@HedgeMage : Some flaws in your argument:

With copyright, authors have to sell their work to publishers. If there is no copyright, authors can switch publisher at any time. In the first case, the position of the publisher is stronger. They decide who and what gets published. In the latter case, the authors are in power.

Say all copies of your book have been printed and your current publisher doesn't want (for whatever reason) print more. Today, your work is lost. Even if you could have more readers, you won't. It's out of your control.
With copyright, no one can publish your work against your will. So you can create an artificial demand, which drives prices up. But only for those who are in demand. If anyone can print any book, authors can't sit back. They have to write more and more books. So that's better for the readers: Fewer books will go out of print.

Now you'll argue that authors won't get any money if anyone can pirate their work any time.

How so? If a book isn't published at all, no one can pirate it. So only published books can be pirated. When a book is published, you need to make a copy of it (scanning, proof-reading, etc). So pirating isn't free, it costs money, too. And time. Eager fans will buy the book as soon as possible, so the author will always get money from the first time publisher. But since there is no copyright, the author can have their book printed by a second publisher, too - and get money from two sources.

If a publisher doesn't want to ask for permission, well, you can't force them. There is nothing preventing them to print any book. But there must be a market, too. So their copy must have some unique value to the readers. Maybe its much cheaper.

As an author that gets me thinking: "If my current publisher is so expensive, that means fewer people buy my books and I could get more per copy if that other publisher printed it ..." Not something your publisher will want to hear, I'm sure.

If your publisher offers you better service than the "cheap pirate", you can still stay. But now, it's a decision, not something forced by the law. It will hurt your feelings if someone makes a lot of money with a re-print but fact is that this money could have been yours if you had the guts to pick it up. You don't want to take the risk? Then on what grounds do you demand a share?

I'm not saying that there won't be problems, I'm saying is that as the author of my work, I get more say in the matter.

The article linked about gives a lot more reasons why copyright is basically a well sold lie. Yes, it makes a select few very rich (first of all the publishers and then a few best-seller authors) but I'm pretty sure even Mrs. Rowling would agree: It would be better if a million authors more could live from their work rather than she make a few billions more.

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