International Law Notes
Public International Law Summary 2001
Creation and Ascertainment of International Law
Sources of International Law
-int’l law governs actions between states and represents the laws that they have voluntarily assented to through conventions, treaties or by usages generally accepted as expressing principles of law established in order to regulate the relations between coexisting legal communities with a view to the achievement of common aims
Statute of the International Court of Justice
Article 38:
Court shall apply:
a) international conventions expressing rules accepted by states
b) international custom as evidence of a general practice accepted as law
c) general principles of law recognized by civilized nations
d) judicial decisions and the teachings of the most highly qualified publicists of the various nations as subsidiary means for the determination of the rules of law
2. The provision shall not prejudice the power of the Court todecide a case ex aequo et bono if the parties agree thereto
-Article 59—decisions have no binding force except for the parties to the dispute
-Article 38(1)—in order for the court to accept any rule of int’l law it must fall under either a, b or c
-38(1)(d) –judicial interpretations and opinions of scholars are evidence by which the rules of int’l law are determined
-the rules that emanate from the law creating processes in Art. 38(1) are hard law there is a second category of law known as soft law that is not binding eg: Helsinki Accords—this soft law is a general code of conduct for states and though not binding is persuasive and can often lead to the formation of binding international customs
Conventions: involve multiple states
Treaties: generally only involve a few (1,2,3)
Rules of Custom are created by:
1) actual state practice-must be consistent, general and virtually uniformly adopted
2) Opinio juris—legal obligations where a state has acceded in a practice for a substantial period of time without
Creation and Ascertainment of International Law
Sources of International Law
-int’l law governs actions between states and represents the laws that they have voluntarily assented to through conventions, treaties or by usages generally accepted as expressing principles of law established in order to regulate the relations between coexisting legal communities with a view to the achievement of common aims
Statute of the International Court of Justice
Article 38:
Court shall apply:
a) international conventions expressing rules accepted by states
b) international custom as evidence of a general practice accepted as law
c) general principles of law recognized by civilized nations
d) judicial decisions and the teachings of the most highly qualified publicists of the various nations as subsidiary means for the determination of the rules of law
2. The provision shall not prejudice the power of the Court todecide a case ex aequo et bono if the parties agree thereto
-Article 59—decisions have no binding force except for the parties to the dispute
-Article 38(1)—in order for the court to accept any rule of int’l law it must fall under either a, b or c
-38(1)(d) –judicial interpretations and opinions of scholars are evidence by which the rules of int’l law are determined
-the rules that emanate from the law creating processes in Art. 38(1) are hard law there is a second category of law known as soft law that is not binding eg: Helsinki Accords—this soft law is a general code of conduct for states and though not binding is persuasive and can often lead to the formation of binding international customs
Conventions: involve multiple states
Treaties: generally only involve a few (1,2,3)
Rules of Custom are created by:
1) actual state practice-must be consistent, general and virtually uniformly adopted
2) Opinio juris—legal obligations where a state has acceded in a practice for a substantial period of time without