Definitions Flashcards
Functional legal personality
A principle to assess international legal personality which states that if the exercise of the funciton conferred upon an international organization by its Member States requires legal personality, an international legal personality is implied.
Implied Powers Doctrine
A principle to assess international legal personality which states that an international organization has the international legal personality to undertake actions that are reasonable necessary to carry out its stated objectives or functions, even if those actions are not explicitly authorized by its charter or other founding document.
Declaratory Theory
An approach of state recognition which states that statehood is a fact and that the existence of international personality of a state does not depend on its recognition as such by other states
Constitutive Theory
An approach of state recognition which states that the act of recognition itself is a necessary precondition of statehood and therefore international legal personality.
Unilateral act
A self-declaration of a state to commit oneself to a certain principle as an international obligation.
Reservation
An unilateral statement, expressed by a state, underlying the intent to modify or exclude an otherwise binding treaty obligation in order to sign and ratify a treaty without a specific clause becoming applicable in its country.
Ratification
The act when a state decides to let the treaty enter its national legislation and therefore become applicable.
Reciprocity of reservations
The concept that a state having raised a reservation concerning an article of a treaty cannot hold that very article against another country.
General State Practice
The objective condition of CIL which states that there must exist a consistent, uniform, and general established state practice.
Opinio Iuris
The subjectie condition of CIL which is the belief that certain conduct is required under international law.
Persistent Objector
A state that has consistently rejected a practice before it became CIL and will therefore not be bound by it.
Secession
A way for a state to change in which the old parent state continues to exist under toe same name and with the same legal identity, but with a reduced territory.
Principle of Self-Determination
It is a principle of international law that holds that all people have the right to determine their own political status and to pursue their own economic, social, and cultural development.
Internal Self-Determination
It is the basic understanding of the principle of self-determination and referst to the right of a people to govern themselves within the framework of an existing state.
External Self-Determination
Refers to the right of a people to form their own independent state which is applied in cases of alien subjugation or if massive human rights violations breach the internal self-determination principle.
Responsibility to protect
Principle of international law that holds that states have a responsibility to protect their populations from mass atrocities and that if the home state fails to protect its own population, the responsibility falls on the international community.
Arbitration
Legally binding decision by an arbitration tribunal in a dispute settlement between two states constituted on an adhoc basis.
Direct effect
The fact that an individual can directly apply the rights given by these treaties even while not being a subject of IL.
State of necessity
A legal principle that allows a state to take actions that would otherwise be prohibited by international law in order to protect its citizens from an imminent threat or harm.
Principle of approximate application
In the event of a termination of a treaty, the other party is entitled (obliged) to bring the implementation of the treaty, as if the treaty hadn’t been terminated.
Ius ad bellum
The legal order that governs when force is used lawfully or not and prohibits resort to force as means of settling inter-state dispute.
Ius in bello
The law applicable in situations of armed conflict which guarantees a minimum of humanity and limits suffering and destruction.
Principle of Distinction
A cardinal principle of IHL that prohibits the use of weapons that are incapable of distinguishing between civilian and military targets.
Prohibition of unnecessary suffering
A cardinal principle of IHL that prohibits the use of weapons that uselessly aggravate the suffering.
Principle of proportionality
A general principle of IHL that claims that attacks need to weighted up against the damage they will cause.
Objective Legal Personality
Claims can also be brought by an international organization against non-member states due to the fact that a vast majority of states recognizes it to have legal personality to do so.
Principle of Military Necessity
Targets of an attack need to be indispensable to the enemy with the sole purpose of winning a conflict.
Right to Self-Defense
Right which may be used as a counter response to an armed attack if it is directed against the state responsible for the armed attach and as long as the act observes the conditions of necessity and proportionality.
TWAIL
A third world approach to international law that emphasizes the perspectives and experiences of colonized and otherwise marginalized peoples and states.
Ius cogens
Ius cogens includes peremptory principles of public international law which must not be
violated under any circumstance, e.g. the prohibition of torture or the prohibition of a war of
aggression, and are considered binding for all states.
Pacta sunt servanda
Every treaty in force is binding upon the parties to it and must be performed by them in good faith.
Soft law
Rules of International Law that do not stipulate concrete rights or obligations for those whom they address but guidelines or principles that might become IL in the future.
Travaux preparatoires
Preliminary drafts, minutes of conferences, and the likes, relating to the conclusion of treaties.
Clausla rebuc sic stantibus
Legal doctrine, which is the exception to the general rule of pacta sunt servanda, allowing for treaties to become applicable because of fundamental change of circumstances.
