LCP 4801 INTERNATIONAL LAW EXAM CORE QUESTIONS
WITH SOLUTIONS A+ 2025/2026
✔✔International Custom - ✔✔Make sure there are agreements between nations
✔✔How to make CIL more effective - ✔✔1. Soft law
2. Treaties - if a state signs, they're bound. If not, they're not
3. Treaties require RATIFICATION
4. Make sure there's practically universal participation
✔✔Majority Votes and Consensus Treaties - ✔✔Pros: More people agree, easier to
ratify
Cons: still some people who don't agree, will not ratify, will not become CIL
Often weak
✔✔Treaties - ✔✔Agreements between states that are BINDING made by the UNGA
✔✔Self-determination - ✔✔The right of people to choose their own form of government
✔✔How soft law becomes CIL - ✔✔1. UNGA makes new laws via interpreting UN
Charter
• doesn't need to be binding bc any agreement must be applied in any court case
2. Evidence of opinio juris
3. May set new standards for general requirements of a treaty (Nuclear Safety
Convention)
•NSC said "nuclear eqiupment must have the appropriate steps" what are the steps?
4. UNGA approved soft law turned treaties doesn't have to go back to each government,
they approve right there
✔✔Codification - ✔✔Makes law clearer, more accessible via Progressive Development
1. Law experts and politicians meet to make a convention to codify certain laws
2. UNGA may also codify existing IL
✔✔Three Sources of Law - ✔✔1. Look for a treaty
2. Look for CIL; state practice and opinio juris
3. Look for General Principles of Law
✔✔International Tribunals - ✔✔Courts with authority from the UN to hear cases and
make judgments about violations of international human rights laws
1. usually have 15 judges
, ✔✔General Principles of Law - ✔✔Mainly fill in gaps in treaties and CIL
1. Example: "inciting genocide" is illegal in all nations, but what exactly is inciting
genocide? Look to nations and how they all commonly define inciting genocide
✔✔Principle of Good Faith - ✔✔French President said they won't conduct anymore
nuclear tests, so they bound themselves to a law that forbids them from conducting
them on the basis that they said they would do it
✔✔Rio Declaration on Environmental Development - ✔✔1. Codifies some principles of
GPL of Environmental Law
2. This declaration is used to interpret future treaties and IL
✔✔Judicial Decisions - ✔✔Despite the outcome of a case being techincally bound
between two states, all countries must follow example as that outcome may become
CIL
1. Gay marriage, Icelandic Fisheries Case, etc
2. Few exceptions such as the Bluefin Tuna Case
✔✔Jus Cogens - ✔✔Article 53 of Vienna Convention. Norms of International Law
1. CANNOT opt out of it
2. Prohibition on use of force, torture, genocise
✔✔Just-War Theory - ✔✔If a lawbreaker was infringing on the rights of the state, last
resort is armed force
1. Sets precedent for self-defence
✔✔League of Nations Covenant - ✔✔Didn't prohibit war, laid down procedural
requirements states had to go through before resorting to war
1. Wasn't too effective because war wasn't clearly defined
2. When Mussolini bombed Corfu, Italy claimed it was an "armed reprisal" and not war
3. LNC claimed only war had to be a process, reprisals were okay
✔✔Pact of Paris - ✔✔The parties agreed that they wouldn't resort to war as an
instrument of national policy
1. If they resort to war otherwise (self-defence of law enforcement operation) , the PoP
is invalid
2. No way to enforce it, but formed the process for Nuremberg Trials
WITH SOLUTIONS A+ 2025/2026
✔✔International Custom - ✔✔Make sure there are agreements between nations
✔✔How to make CIL more effective - ✔✔1. Soft law
2. Treaties - if a state signs, they're bound. If not, they're not
3. Treaties require RATIFICATION
4. Make sure there's practically universal participation
✔✔Majority Votes and Consensus Treaties - ✔✔Pros: More people agree, easier to
ratify
Cons: still some people who don't agree, will not ratify, will not become CIL
Often weak
✔✔Treaties - ✔✔Agreements between states that are BINDING made by the UNGA
✔✔Self-determination - ✔✔The right of people to choose their own form of government
✔✔How soft law becomes CIL - ✔✔1. UNGA makes new laws via interpreting UN
Charter
• doesn't need to be binding bc any agreement must be applied in any court case
2. Evidence of opinio juris
3. May set new standards for general requirements of a treaty (Nuclear Safety
Convention)
•NSC said "nuclear eqiupment must have the appropriate steps" what are the steps?
4. UNGA approved soft law turned treaties doesn't have to go back to each government,
they approve right there
✔✔Codification - ✔✔Makes law clearer, more accessible via Progressive Development
1. Law experts and politicians meet to make a convention to codify certain laws
2. UNGA may also codify existing IL
✔✔Three Sources of Law - ✔✔1. Look for a treaty
2. Look for CIL; state practice and opinio juris
3. Look for General Principles of Law
✔✔International Tribunals - ✔✔Courts with authority from the UN to hear cases and
make judgments about violations of international human rights laws
1. usually have 15 judges
, ✔✔General Principles of Law - ✔✔Mainly fill in gaps in treaties and CIL
1. Example: "inciting genocide" is illegal in all nations, but what exactly is inciting
genocide? Look to nations and how they all commonly define inciting genocide
✔✔Principle of Good Faith - ✔✔French President said they won't conduct anymore
nuclear tests, so they bound themselves to a law that forbids them from conducting
them on the basis that they said they would do it
✔✔Rio Declaration on Environmental Development - ✔✔1. Codifies some principles of
GPL of Environmental Law
2. This declaration is used to interpret future treaties and IL
✔✔Judicial Decisions - ✔✔Despite the outcome of a case being techincally bound
between two states, all countries must follow example as that outcome may become
CIL
1. Gay marriage, Icelandic Fisheries Case, etc
2. Few exceptions such as the Bluefin Tuna Case
✔✔Jus Cogens - ✔✔Article 53 of Vienna Convention. Norms of International Law
1. CANNOT opt out of it
2. Prohibition on use of force, torture, genocise
✔✔Just-War Theory - ✔✔If a lawbreaker was infringing on the rights of the state, last
resort is armed force
1. Sets precedent for self-defence
✔✔League of Nations Covenant - ✔✔Didn't prohibit war, laid down procedural
requirements states had to go through before resorting to war
1. Wasn't too effective because war wasn't clearly defined
2. When Mussolini bombed Corfu, Italy claimed it was an "armed reprisal" and not war
3. LNC claimed only war had to be a process, reprisals were okay
✔✔Pact of Paris - ✔✔The parties agreed that they wouldn't resort to war as an
instrument of national policy
1. If they resort to war otherwise (self-defence of law enforcement operation) , the PoP
is invalid
2. No way to enforce it, but formed the process for Nuremberg Trials
