Public International Law Summary

Public international law
Week 1 Introduction to Public International Law
 Public International Law as ‘Law’
 Definition: rules and principles that regulate the relations between States
 It could be between States
 It could be between States and other entities
 It could cover wild range of activities (agreements, diplomatic relations)
 Historical development of international law
 1648- Peace of Westphalia (the birth of modern intern. Law)
 17th century- Hugo C. (the father of intern law)
 after WW1- permanent court in the Hague
 Relationship between national and international law
 Scope of international law is determined by the inadequacy of national law
 Globalization & global government




Week 2 Sources of Law (Treaties and Customary International Law)

 Theory of Sources
 Dominant positivist theory- a state is only bond by the legal obligations it
has consented to
 Primary and subsidiary sources
 Primary sources- treaties, intern. custom and general principles of law
 Secondary sources-judicial decisions
 Law of treaties
 Pacta sunt servada - Article 26 of Vienna Convention - a treaty in force is
binding on the parties and must be performed by them in good faith
 What is a treaty - Article 2 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of
Treaties - treaty means inter agreement concluded between states in
written form and governed by international law
 Customary law, elements and application
 Article 38 of ICJ Statue- international custom as evidence of a general
practice, accepted as law. There are two main requirements: state practice
accompanied by opinion juris.
 Opinion juris- belief that an action was carried out as a legal obligation
(henriksen, international law p 27) (the state is acting in a certain way just
because it is required by Rule of law)
 Objective elements: the existence of State practice- the actions by the state
must support the custom

,  Subjective elements: acceptance as law (opinion juris)
o = opinion juris sire necessitas = opinion of law or necessity
o In customary international law it is the 2nd element necessary to
establish a legally binding custom
o -> Art. 38 (1)b: International custom as evidence of (1) a general
practice and (2) accepted as law
o 2 main requirements: state practice accompanied by opinion juris
 The state practice must be: consistent and uniform (еднакъв), generally
accepted, of a certain duration(продължителност)
 General principles of law
 Derived from a comparison of the various legal systems
 Shared by a majority
 Rarely legislated
 Pacta sunt servanda - binding obligations (Klabbers p 44)
 Ne bis in idem
 Hierarchy: rules jus cogens and obligations erga omnes
 jus cogens-important rules that are way too important and they exist
without consent. (Klabbers, international law p 27)
o = universal law
o Most frequently cited candidates for jus cogens: (1) the prohibition
of aggressive use of force, (2) the right to self-defense, (3) the
prohibition of genocide, (4) crimes against humanity
 erga omnes
o was introduced into positive law by the ICJ in the Barcelona
traction case 1970
o the ICJ identified a category of international obligations called
erga omnes, namely obligations owed by states to the international
community as a whole, intended to protect and promote the basic
values and common interests of all

 Soft law
 Soft law documents may be evidence of state practice or opinion juris and
on that basis become relevant to the creation of binding international law
 The soft law’s instruments are not in themselves legally binding under
intern law and they do not constitute independent sources of law
(Henriksen, international law p 37)




Week 3 Actors in the International Legal System