LAWS 2601 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Opinio Juris Sive Necessitatis, Pacta Sunt Servanda, Nautical Mile
Document Summary
The sources of international law: no single body (legislature/sovereign) able to create laws internationally binding on all, art. In all cases, icj jurisdiction rests on consent; however, once jurisdiction is established, parties are bound to abide by outcome: consent may be enshrined in treaty agreed upon by parties (pre-given, ex. Opinion juris sive necessitatis (opinio juris: practice must be accepted as law by the int"l community, states must believe their conduct is legally required, two approaches, presumptive approach: issue is application of rule, not its existence. If parties intend to reject the development of a new rule, they must show their practice & opinio juris is against that rule: sources of evidence: official pronouncements, ex. newspapers, memoirs, etc, a slow tedious process. Later-in-time rule if two pieces of legislation conflict, the most recently created one is the one that applies. Lex specialis rules the law of armed conflict: include substantive legal norms common to most legal systems in the world.