2 - Customary International Law Flashcards
What is customary international law?
CIL is an established pattern of behaviour that can be viewed as legally binding.
What are the two main principles of CIL?
State practice and opinion juris
What is state practice?
State practice is practice by a state that is consistent and widespread.
What is opinio juris?
Opinio Juris is the belief that the state practice carries a legal obligation.
What does the Asylum 1950 case show?
That there is the possibility of regional customary law.
What are the facts of the Asylum 1950 case?
Columbian Ambassador in Peru was given asylum status in Columbia but Peru would not allow him safe passage out of Peru.
What was the issue in the North Sea Continental Shelf cases?
Is Germany under a legal obligation to accept the equidistance-special circumstances principle, contained in the Geneva Convention on the Continental Shelf 1958, either as a customary international law rule or on the basis of the Geneva Convention?
Was Germany under a legal obligation to accept the equidistance-special circumstances principle contained in the Geneva Convention on the Continental Shelf 1958?
No, because Germany had signed - not ratified - the convention.
What does the North Sea Continental Shelf Cases show?
That duration of practice is not as important as widespread and uniform practice when assessing if an act is customary international law.
What’s an example of practice that has not been accepted by law (opinio juris) ?
An example of practice is that it is customary to welcome visiting foreign dignitaries by rolling out the red carpet, but few would think of such as a rule of law.
Why did the ICJ decide that Germany was not bound by customary international law in the North Sea Continental Shelf Cases?
There was neither no widespread and virtually uniform practice nor opinio juris.
What is the leading case on what constitutes persistent objection?
Fisheries 1951 case.
What was the issue of Fisheries 1951 case?
The issue was the question of whether the UK had accepted Norway’s practice of delimiting its maritime zones not by measuring directly from the coastline.
What does the Fisheries 1951 case show?
If states persistently object to another state’s practice then it can prevent a customary international law rule being created.
If states breach an existing custom, does it imply there is a new rule / the existing rule has been weakened?
No. Instances that State conduct is inconsistent with a given rule should generally have been treated as breaches of that rule, not as indications of the recognition of a new rule.
