scholarly journals Does Custom Have A Source?

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 108 ◽  
pp. 179-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Bodansky

Customary international law often seems like a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. According to Manley O. Hudson, even the drafters of the International Court of Justice Statute “had no very clear idea as to what constituted international custom.” The situation has not changed much since then.I got my first taste of the difficulties in identifying custom when I was a junior attorney at the U.S. Department of State and was assigned the task of preparing the U.S. submission in a juvenile death penalty case before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The juvenile death penalty is prohibited by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the American Convention on Human Rights, but the question in the Inter-American Commission case was whether it is also prohibited as a matter of customary international law.

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
William A. Schabas

Many areas of international law developed first as custom and were only subsequently, generally in the course of the twentieth century, subject to codification. Human rights law was different. It was viewed as quintessentially a matter of domestic concern, a subject shrouded in State sovereignty. Only following the Second World War was international human rights law recognised as a source of binding obligations, mainly through the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other instruments of the United Nations as well as the regional systems. Later, jurists began contending that the norms in these instruments might also be customary in nature. They struggled with identifying the two classic elements in the determination of custom, opinio juris and State practice. Most analysis of the content of customary international law was rather perfunctory and also quite conservative, confining itself largely to civil and political rights.


Law Review ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 169
Author(s):  
Fransiska Ayulistya Susanto

<p><em>Refugee problems become global problems not only for destination country but also for the transit or non-parties country on Status of Refugees Convention 1951. The problem arises when the transit or non-parties country ignore the existence of the refugees in their territory consequently, many refugees could only depend on their protection under UNHCR help. Even if, the territorial state is not the party of 1951 convention, however, they still have responsibility under another Human Rights Convention to give protection to the refugees. Therefore, how far the refugees shall be protected under the transit territory? This article will have analyzed minimum protection under Human Rights instruments and Customary International Law that could give to the refugees. Under the International Covenant on Civil and political Rights, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, International Convention on The Rights of the Child and Customary International Law, the state territory shall give protection without any discrimination to the refugees, even if they are not the party of 1951 convention. Even though, the protection that refugees get from transit state slightly different than protection from state parties, however, they shall get to be protected.</em></p><p><strong>Bahasa Indonesia Abstrak: </strong>Masalah pengungsi sudah menjadi permasalahan global yang tidak hanya berpengaruh terhadap negara tujuan saja, namun juga pada negara transit atau negara yang bukan merupakan negara anggota Konvensi Status Pengungsi 1951. Masalah timbul saat negara-negara transit atau negara non-anggota mengabaikan keberadaan pengungsi di teritori negara mereka, sehingga banyak pengungsi yang hanya menyandarkan nasibnya di tangan bantuan UNHCR. Meskipun negara teritorial bukan merupakan negara anggota Konvensi Status Pengungsi 1951, namun mereka seharusnya tetap memberikan perlindungan kepada pengungsi. Pertanyaannya, seberapa jauh negara harus memberikan perlindungan kepada pengungsi? Artikel ini akan menganalisis perlindungan minimal di bawah Hak Asasi Manusia yang harus diberikan negara non-anggota kepada pengungsi yang ada di wilayahnya. Menurut Konvenan tentang Hak-Hak Sipil dan Politik, Konvenan Hak-Hak Ekonomi, Sosial dan Budaya, serta Konvensi Perlindungan Anak dan juga hukum kebiasaan internasional, negara teritorial haruslah memberikan perlindungan tanpa diskriminasi kepada pengungsi, meskipun negara teritorial tidak menjadi para pihak dari Konvensi Status Pengungsi 1951. Meskipun perlindungan yang diberikan kepada pengungsi oleh negara transit sedikit berbeda jika dibandingkan perlindungan dari negara anggota konvensi, mereka tetap harus mendapatkan perlindungan.</p>


2011 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 810-819 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mads Andenas

This is the first time in its history, to the best of my knowledge, that the International Court of Justice has established violations of the two human rights treaties at issue, together, namely, at universal level, the 1966 UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and, at regional level, the 1981 African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, both in the framework of the universality of human rights.This is the opening paragraph of Judge Cançado Trindade's Separate Opinion in the Diallo case. The ICJ's judgment is a remarkable decision contributing to the widening and deepening of international law and has consequences for several fundamental questions, including the role of the ICJ and international law in making human rights effective, erga omnes and jus cogens rules, customary law, evidence, and several substantive rules. In bringing the transformation of international law one step further, the Diallo judgment develops the ICJ as ‘the principal judicial organ of the United Nations’1 at the top of an open international law system. To achieve this, the Court had to overcome a series of jurisdictional and procedural hurdles.2 All the permanent judges of the ICJ agreed that Congo had violated the prohibition on arbitrary detention and expulsion and that the violations gave rise to a right of compensation. The ICJ's use of sources from other international and regional bodies as sources of authority, indicates solutions to fragmentation problems.


2003 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
pp. 313-339 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon de Smet

AbstractThis article investigates the law of Head of State immunity in the United States in light of the recent decision by the International Court of Justice in the Arrest Warrant Case (DRC v. Belgium). It does so by analyzing the U.S. law and comparing it with the customary international law on Head of State immunity as laid out by the world court. The article demonstrates that there are two competing strands in the recent jurisprudence of U.S. courts, neither of which is in conformity with international law. The reasons for this discrepancy are examined and explained in light of the underlying debate about the role of customary international law in the U.S. constitutional system. In conclusion, the author suggests that the best solution to the current dilemma is for the U.S. courts to apply the rules on Head of State immunity as explained by the world court and avoid as much as possible interference by the executive.


2001 ◽  
Vol 95 (4) ◽  
pp. 757-791 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthea Elizabeth Roberts

The demise of custom as a source of international law has been widely forecasted. This is because both the nature and the relative importance of custom’s constituent elements are contentious. At the same time, custom has become an increasingly significant source of law in important areas such as human rights obligations. Codification conventions, academic commentary, and the case law of the International Court of Justice (the Court) have also contributed to a contemporary resurrection of custom. These developments have resulted in two apparently opposing approaches, which I term “traditional custom” and “modern custom.” The renaissance of custom requires the articulation of a coherent theory that can accommodate its classic foundations and contemporary developments. This article seeks to provide an enriched theoretical account of custom that incorporates both the traditional and the modern approaches rather than advocating one approach over the other.


Author(s):  
Steven Wheatley

International Human Rights Law has emerged as an academic subject in its own right, separate from, but still related to, International Law. This book explains the distinctive nature of the new discipline by examining the influence of the moral concept of human rights on general international law. Rather than make use of moral philosophy or political theory, the work explains the term ‘human rights’ by examining its usage in international law practice, on the understanding that words are given meaning through their use. Relying on complexity theory to make sense of the legal practice in the United Nations, the core human rights treaties, and customary international law, The Idea of International Human Rights Law shows how a moral concept of human rights emerged, and then influenced the international law doctrine and practice on human rights, a fact that explains the fragmentation of international law and the special nature of International Human Rights Law.


2018 ◽  
Vol 112 ◽  
pp. 79-82
Author(s):  
Maria Flores

I first became involved with international law while I was at university. After graduating, I decided to teach public international law. As an undergraduate, I particularly enjoyed this branch of study. I was attracted to it because it helped me to understand the problems, challenges, and breakthroughs in the field of international relations on a global scale. Therefore, after facing a competitive entry process, I joined the international law department of the Universidad de la República. It was a small department, but the university had produced some well-known scholars like Eduardo Jiménez de Aréchaga, who became a judge at the International Court of Justice, and Hector Gross Espiell, who served as a judge at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.


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