Complete summary containing all the information prescribed for the course, written down in bullet point format. Contains all one needs to know for the exam. also check out my other summaries! they are highly appreciated by the class of 2023
• Exam prep
o No headless memorizing
o For the essay:
▪ Clarify the important issues of the course and use these issues to focus your
understanding of specific facts and particular readings
• Mention the main theses of the authors, and after discussing these,
try fitting your own perspective on the issues with the theses, so a
thematic pattern is created. Then, link these issues with eachother
▪ Types of questions
• Define
o Shed light on the definition from multiple viewpoints
• Explain how/why
o Give reasons and examples of how and/or why something
happened or can take place
• Compare/contrast/relate
o Show how two or more things are
similar/different/connected to each other
• Analyse
o Look closely at the components of something to figure out
how it works, what it might mean and why it is important
• Discuss
o Make a broad argument about a set of arguments you have
studied
o About the readings! Not undiscussed shizzle
▪ How to write
o Write clearly
o Write comprehensively
▪ Don’t just fill up the words, use relevant information
o Write specifically
▪ Don’t write more about a case than one paragraph,
and don’t write more than 3 sentences on the case
• 0 – make a list of the parts so that you do not miss or minimize one
part
o One way to be sure you answer them all is to number them
in the question and in your outline
• 1 – introduce your main idea
• 2 – write several paragraphs to support the main idea
o Each with a single point to defend with specific examples
• 3 - Conclude with a restatement of your main point and its
significance
• 4- proofread
• If running out of time; jot down the ideas quickly
▪ Grading criteria
• Coverage
• Accuracy
• Evidence
• Structure
, • Style
▪ Mock questions
• States do not care about international law when they go to wars –
discuss
• Analyse the responsibility and structure of the ICC
• Tribunals are better than courts – Discuss
• Explain and compare the sources of international law
• Domestic law is more important than international law – discuss
• International law is just a tool for powerful states to dominate
weaker states – discuss
• Define and explain the main problems Morgenthai identifies in
international law
• “international law is an inherently European practice that began in
Salamanca, Oxford, and Leiden”. Discuss
• “The mandate system was the best way for underdeveloped nations
to prosper”. Discuss
• List and compare the subjects of international law
• “Palestine is not a state under international law”. Discuss
• What paths can states use to get out of treaties they have signed?
• “To settle disputes, states are better off adopting negotiations
rather than arbitration or adjudication.” Discuss
• Country A files a case against country B at the international court of
Justice. What will the Court check before it admits the case?
• Define and explain the criteria for self-defence under international
law?
• Lecture 1
o Le grand case
▪ America sentencing Germans to death
• Vienna convention applicable to the ICJ
o
• Lecture 2
o Germany vs Poland case
▪ Geneva convention
▪ Nationalization of German family owned company based in Poland by the
Polish state
▪ Germany sued Poland to defend its citizens
▪ ICJ:
• “from the standpoint of international law and of the court which is
its organ, municipal laws are merely facts which express the will and
constitute the activities of the states”
• “there is nothing to prevent the courts giving judgement on the
question whether or not in applying [Polish] Law, Poland is acting in
conformity with its obligations towards Germany under the Geneva
Convention”
o Exchange of Greeks and Turkish Populations – 1925 – PCIJ
▪ Question: is there a general duty to bring national law in conformity with
obligation under international law?
, • “Self evident is the principle in international law, according to which
a state which has contracted valid international obligations is bound
to make in its legislations such modifications as may be necessary to
ensure the fulfilment of the obligations undertaken”
• Antonio Cassese - “the transformation of international norms into
domestic law is not a question of international law, but rather of
domestic politics and law”
o Compliance
▪ Types of Compliance
• First order compliance
o States complying with the substantive provisions of rules
• Second order compliance
o Action that are primarily not in compliance with the rulings
of an authoritative body charged with the interpretation or
adjucation of a primary rule are sanctioned
▪ Power
• Compliance enforcement in the international field is notoriously
weak (outside of the EU)
▪ Effectiveness of international law
• Assessed by two methods
o Actual observance (compliance by states) and validity
(binding force of the law)
• On observance
o Henkin - “almost all nations observe
almost all principles of international
law and almost all of their
obligations almost all of the time”
• Conflict between the internal law and
external law, or between the authority of
the signatory and the state
o So if a person lacking authority signs
on behalf of the country it is not
valid
o Are the broader effects of treaties on society/economy
beneficial?
o Hans Morgenthau (1904-1980)
• “The concept of the political” (book)
o Response to classist realist accounts
• “the scientific man vs. Power politics” - 1946 (book)
o He himself has become more realist here
o Because mankind has become technologically advanced,
politics should be more advanced as well, but Morgenthau
states this has not happened – the man has not morally
changed
• “politics among nations” - 194..
o Textbook for Chicago university
▪ On the readings from “politics among nations”
, o International law has been perceived as a weak field due to
the majority of the people writing on it having too little
information to write with because of their inaction to do
research on it
• Morgenthau:
o “international law is a primitive type of law resembling the
kind of law which prevails in certain preliterate societies,
such as the Australian aborigines and the Yurok of northern
california. It is a primitive type of law primarily because it is
almost completely decentralised law. It is decentralised with
regard to the three basic functions which any legal system
must fulfil:
▪ Legislation
o Writing and drafting legal rules
• Domestic law
o Legislators and courts produce legal
rules for an established national
community
o Highly centralized
• International law
o Legislation depends on mutual
consent and necessity
o Largely contracts without any third
party effects
• So
o A profound problem is found with
codification in international law
o Even if states do consent to a rule
there are issues of interpretation
and binding force
o A problem is found with assuming
trust towards the authority of the
signee
o The ambiguity that international law
often assumes results in it being
“bad law”
▪ Adjudication
o Functions of the judiciary
• Necessity for a efficient judiciary acquired
by
o Compulsory jurisdiction
▪ Enforcement of the
subjectivity of the entities
under review
▪ Not present under
international law
o
▪ Enforcement
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