POLS 3630 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Global Warming, Peremptory Norm

• School: University of Windsor
• Department: Political Science
• Course: POLS 3630
• Professor: Cynthia Nantais

Document Summary

Customary international law is a repository of the varied principles and behaviors by which states interacted with one another throughout history. This system may be ancient and slow to change, yet it functions as an elastic band that allows states to stretch the law without breaking it. This is important due to the political intercourse that permeates international relations. A litigious nation can conjure archaic laws that were once upon a time considered. Customary law is what imbues natural law into the world by providing an international standard that cannot be broken. Jus cogens is what binds nations to respect human rights and abide by the rules that were propped up by the suffrage of the people of the past. The wars of the past have emulsified a world conscience that intertwines the fates of states. Therefore, states are pressured to halt political self interest in the face of violating normative laws, whose price tag encompasses economical and military sanctions.