Exclusive HOLI Discounts!
Get Courses and Combos at Upto 50% OFF!
Upgrad
LCI Learning

Share on Facebook

Share on Twitter

Share on LinkedIn

Share on Email

Share More

Vinodkumar Kotabagi (Advocate and Trademark Attorney)     21 February 2009

 The Sources of International Law are derived from Art.38 of the Statute of International Court of Justice: It reads as:


1. The Court, whose function is to decide in accordance with international law such disputes as are submitted to it, shall apply:





a. international conventions, whether general or particular, establishing rules expressly recognized by the contesting states;


b. international custom, as evidence of a general practice accepted as law;


c. the general principles of law recognized by civilized nations;


d. subject to the provisions of Article 59, judicial decisions and the teachings of the most highly qualified publicists of the various nations, as subsidiary means for the determination of rules of law.





2. This provision shall not prejudice the power of the Court to decide a case ex aequo et bono, if the parties agree thereto.

AEJAZ AHMED (Legal Consultant/Lawyer)     22 February 2009

In addition to Vinod's reply:



Treaties


Whereas bilateral treaties or treaties between only a few states may best resemble a contract between individuals, multilateral treaties such as the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea are often referred to as “law-making treaties” in that they represent as close as the international legal order gets to international legislation. Widely accepted multilateral treaties, such as the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties itself, are often taken as firm indicators of the content of customary international law on the topic.  


To access the Treaty Series page, which contains further information on treaties and a database of treaties to which Ireland is a party, please click here.


The treaty law section of the website of the United Nations provides a useful glossary of many of the terms used when referring to treaties, for example ratification, accession, declaration, etc. To access the glossary click the following link.


To access a table of multilateral treaties deposited with the UN Secretary General, click on the following link to the table which is correct as of 12 May 2006:  Table of Treaties (PDF 298kb). Please note: treaties concluded before 26 June 1945 and terminated treaties are not included in this table.


Custom and State Practice 


In the absence of a treaty governing relations between two or more states on a particular topic, what is important is evidence of the existence of consensus among states as to what the law should be, or, in other words, state practice combined with a recognition that a certain practice is obligatory. If sufficiently widespread and consistent, such practice and consensus may constitute customary international law.


Evidence of custom may be found among the following sources: diplomatic correspondence, opinions of official legal advisers, statements by governments, United Nations General Assembly resolutions, comments by governments on drafts produced by the International Law Commission, the decisions of national and international courts. However, as with all matters of evidence, the weight which can be given to a particular statement varies greatly depending on the circumstances in which it was made.


To access statements made by Ireland on certain international legal issues, please click here. Article 38 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice includes among the possible sources of international law, “judicial decisions” as a subsidiary means for the determination of rules of law.


For access to the website of the International Court of Justice, click on this link


Apart from decisions of international judicial bodies, decisions of a national court may amount to a statement of what that court considers to be international law on a particular matter. Such a decision would only carry weight as evidence of international law where the court is of very high standing and where the international law issue is central to the case and receives careful consideration. So, for example, important decisions of the United States Supreme Court (such as 1900 case, The Paquete Habana), the House of Lords (such as the Pinochet Case) and the Irish Supreme Court (such as The Government of Canada v The Employment Appeals Tribunal) have influenced the development or interpretation of international law.  


In addition, decisions of national courts may in themselves be evidence of state practice on a particular topic. In an important early case, The Lotus (1927) the Permanent Court of International Justice examined decisions of French national courts in order to discover what the state practice of France was on the subject at hand.  


 



 

N.K.Assumi (Advocate)     22 February 2009

I agree with vinod and aejaz.

Abhishek (law student)     22 February 2009

Article 38 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice, considered by some as the "Bible of the Poor" of those who seek quick answers despite of the complexity of international relations, constitutes nevertheless a good starting point for the understanding of the sources of international law. According to this article, international law finds its origin in the following three sources:



      - international conventions of general or particular nature;

      - international custom, as evidence of a general practice accepted

        as law;

      - the general principles of law recognized by civilized nations.

N.K.Assumi (Advocate)     22 February 2009

One can also look at Article 2 (2) of the UN Charter, which lays down that "All members in order to ensure to all of them the rights and benefits resulting from membership, shall fulfil in good faith the obligations assumed by them in accordance with the present charter. The significance of this principle touches every aspect of International Law.

ritu bhadana (advocate)     11 March 2009

 mr. ahmed is right i agree with him


Leave a reply

Your are not logged in . Please login to post replies

Click here to Login / Register