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Summary Summery ONLY international law
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In the summary: Chapters (or parts) 4, 7, 8.2, 9.2-9.5, 11, 12, 13, 17, 21, 15, 16, 19 20
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International and European Law SummaryMeeting 1: sources of international law
Chapter 4.1 What are sources of law?
The recognized sources are:
1) Treaties and conventions: are only binding for the parties themselves
2) International custom: are in principle binding all the States
3) General principles of law: may be binding when a point is not settles either by treaty or custom
4) The subsidiary sources of juridical decisions and legal teachings
Primary rules A body of principles and rules that lay down the rights and obligations of the subject of
that system. They exist because the legislature (the person or authority who makes the
law) passed particular legislation, or because a long line of juridical decisions has
established that the common law is to this or that effect.
Secondary rules Rules which can be applied to determine what are the primary rules, how they come into
existence and how they can be changed. They exist to the effect that a Parliament, or
other legislative body, has the power to make law; and that the common law as
expressed in judicial precedents, constitutes the law of the land – the body of primary
rules.
Lex ferenda Law that is ought to be made, developing or embryonic law. The law/rule is not made
yet.
Lex lata Law which has been made, positive law.
Material sources The place, like a document of some kind, in which the terms of the rule are set out.
Formal sources The question of the authority for the rule as a rule of law, binding on States, is
determined by the formal source of the rule.
Chapter 4.2 Article 38 of the Statue of the International Court of Justice (ICJ)
This article describes the generally recognized formal sources.
1) Treaties and conventions
2) International custom
3) General principles of law
4) The subsidiary sources of juridical decisions and legal teachings
The two most important sources are treaties and international custom. If a rule is laid down in a treaty, then it is binding on
the States parties to that treaty. The treaty is once the material source and once the formal source of the rule.
The rule may be taken over and applied in the practice of other States not parties to the treaty. In that case the material
source of the rule will be still the same, but the formal source will be called international custom. Not treaty, because they
are no party to the treaty.
Art. 38 ICJ say that by applying what is mentioned in sub-paragraphs a to d, the court will be only applying international law
to these sources, but it also follows from the inclusion in paragraph 2. To decide a case ex aequto et bono means ‘to decide
otherwise than in accordance with the applicable l aw. The judge will decide what the fairest solution is in the circumstances.
Pacta sunt servanda What has been agreed must be respected.
Article 26 of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties gives a definition of Pacta sunt servanda:
Every treaty is binding upon the parties to it and must be performed by them in good faith.
Art. 34 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties says: a treaty does not create either obligations or rights for a third
State without its consent. There are two exceptions to this principle:
1) An obligation started in a treaty is or becomes an obligation of general customary law
2) It is possible for a State not a party to the treaty to accept the obligation stated in the treaty, or derive a benefit from
the treaty, if all States concerned are so agreed. In effect a new treaty is concluded extending the scope of the
original treaty to the third state.
The question whether a particular treat is in force, is not easy to answer by simply checking that each of the States has
ratified it. A new State may be bound by certain treaties concluded by its predecessor, without a formal act of accession
thereto. A further complication is due the possibility of reservations.
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