This page is about international law. What it is, who designs and specifies its rules (codifies it), what its rules are (sources of international law) and who interprets the sources and decides its cases (jurisdiction).
Early online and in work: Content possibly wrong and/or subject to frequent changes.
12.2.23: Moved content of Self Determination, Territorial Rights and Governance to separate page: Governance and Self Determination. Clarifications, corrections and formulations.
4.11.22 Early online for considerations on Governance and Self Determination which have been moved here from the Ru_ukr_conflict page).
[in work]
International law is about rules which are considered globally valid. Here universal rules is chosen as title since:
[in work]
A GUIDE TO THE BASICS OF INTERNATIONAL LAW https://legal.un.org/avl/pdf/ls/Greenwood_outline.pdf
Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) of Switzerland, ABC of International Law, https://www.eda.admin.ch/content/dam/eda/en/documents/publications/Voelkerrecht/ABC-des-Voelkerrechts_en.pdf
Also includes a helpful glossary where many key terms are described (similar as in Terminology here).
APPLICATION OF THE CONVENTION ON THE PREVENTION AND PUNISHMENT OF THE CRIME OF GENOCIDE (THE GAMBIA v. MYANMAR) REQUEST FOR THE INDICATION OF PROVISIONAL MEASURES ORDER OF 23 JANUARY 2020, https://www.icj-cij.org/public/files/case-related/178/178-20200123-ORD-01-00-EN.pdf
In work, incomplete and to be checked.
Relevant Organs of the UN and their function in International Law:
Key UN Documents:
Greenwood, Christopher. “Sources of international law: an introduction.” United Nations Treaty Collection (2008). http://legal.un.org/avl/pdf/ls/greenwood_outline.pdf
Revisiting the Interaction of the Trilogy of Sources of International Law, Timothy F. Yerima, Ph.D., Kogi state University, Anyigba, Nigeria.
Obligations for states and rights of states towards other actors.
https://www.un.org/en/about-us/un-charter/
Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties art. 2, May 23 1969, 1155 U.N.T.S. 331. // Covers treaties between states.
An Introduction to Human Rights, Australian Human Rights Commission
Human Rights: A Brief Introduction, Stephen P. Marks Harvard University
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights
Web: https://www.un.org/disarmament/wmd/nuclear/npt/ = https://disarmament.unoda.org/wmd/nuclear/npt/ Description: “The NPT is a landmark international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament.” from https://www.un.org/disarmament/wmd/nuclear/npt/
Wikipedia on NPT: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_on_the_Non-Proliferation_of_Nuclear_Weapons
Official Webpage: https://www.opcw.org/chemical-weapons-convention Description: “As the implementing body for the Chemical Weapons Convention, the OPCW, with its 193 Member States, oversees the global endeavour to permanently and verifiably eliminate chemical weapons.” from https://www.opcw.org
Law to protect the environment i.e. the environment has some ‘rights’ which can be
Mark A. Drumbl and Kateřina Uhlířová, Actors and law-making in international environmental law
This section defines key terms and how they are used on this page.
The sources primarily followed are the Oxford dictionary, wikipedia and the references listed on this page such as the ABC of International Law.
Some terms are used slightly differently in literature.
State and country are used synonymously.
Historically, sometimes the term ‘Nation’ is/has been used to denote a country. The term international law derives from this.
A specified behavior pattern which is expected to be followed.
A collection/system of rules formally agreed to be valid within a country or between countries. A rule which is specified in the law is called legally binding.
Rules considered as globally valid both for states and people.
Originally international law mainly concerned inter-state relations (especially ‘regulating’ wars in Europe) such as the Hague conventions. // at a time when the nation state concept was en vogue and thus inter-national.
Customary international law is when a certain behavior pattern or declaration has become a widespread accepted and is expected to be followed.
Treaty, convention, covenant or declaration are used to denote agreements between states.
The usage differ slightly depending on the media and context.
Usually treaty conventions and covenants imply obligations where as a declaration is rather an intent - though a declaration can become customary law.
Below the terms Treaty, Covenant and Convention
An agreement between states. Some treaties require signature and/or ratification to come into force.
An agreement which usually is fundamental in essence. Examples are the Covenants of
In international law, a convention is used to denote an agreement between multiple states (often concluded at a large meeting of states).
Examples are the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, the Hague Conventions and the Geneva Conventions (ABC of International Law).
The word conventions has also the meanings:
- A behavior pattern which is common or even expected to be followed.
In international law, compulsory behavior patterns are known as customary law.
- Large meetings themselves are also called conventions.
Convention and Covenant both come from latin convenire which means come together (both in the sense to assemble and to agree [to confirm]).
Jus Cogens and Peremptory Norms denote rules a subset of that are strongly expected to be follow by all actors.
Erga omnes (latin: towards all) rules are owned towards all states. A practical implications is, that any state has the right to complain on a breach of an erga omnes rule, even if the state complaining is not affected itself. In the case Gambia vs Myanmar on a possible genocide by Myanmar the ICJ states in 41. “"”… The Court held that these provisions generated “obligations [which] may be defined as ‘obligations erga omnes partes’ in the sense that each State party has an interest in compliance with them in any given case” (Judgment, I.C.J. Reports 2012 (II), p. 449, para. 68). It follows that any State party to the Genocide Convention, and not only a specially affected State, may invoke the responsibility of another State party with a view to ascertaining the alleged failure to comply with its obligations erga omnes partes, and to bring that failure to an end.”””