International Law Flashcards
Dublin Regulation?
EU law: you must claim asylum in the first country you reach
- which country must take responsibility for such people
International Law: constitutes?
- EU law
- National law
- International law, e.g. 1951 UN Convention on the Status of Refugees
- -> public and private international law
- -> supranational law
What is international law?
- Historically: relationships between people: humanist
- Now: shifted to become about relationships between states –> governing their relations
- rules accepted by states that are binding and which govern their relationships
- individuals can sometimes use international law
- no formal law-making body
Sources of international law?
Primary: - Treaties - Conventions - Agreements - Customary International Law Secondary: - Judicial decisions - Academic writing Soft law: - Declarations, non-binding (e.g. UDHR): persuasive
Customary International Law?
deriving from custom
- state carries out a practice that they believe to be law themselves: most of the big powerful states must agree to it in order for it to be established
Vienna Convention, Art 31(1)?
Interpretation of international law: treaties
- ‘good faith’
- literal approach: ordinary meaning
- purposive: context in light of object and purpose
(preambles although non-binding can be referred to: e.g. 1945 UN Charter preamble)
Vienna Convention, Art 3(2)?
Interpretation of international law: treaties
- supplementary means can be used
- travaux preparatoires: preparatory works –> can be used
1945 UN Charter preamble?
‘We the people of the United Nations’…
- save from the scourge of war
- reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights
- gender equality
- justice, respect for treaty obligations
- social progress, better standard of life
International Law: Doctrine of Incorporation?
- Monism: treaty is automatically binding on the state upon signing (self-executing) –> binding on ratification
- Dualist (UK): an Act of Parliament must be passed to give the treaty effect
- states can enter reservations against certain provisions of the treaty: e.g. can’t enter reservation against definition of refugee according to the Refugee Convention
Challenges to international law?
- effectiveness: laws are only as good as its enforcement (e.g. ICC bias/focus on African criminals and ICJ: only effective to signatory states)
- increasingly powerful multinational organisations that are ‘non-state actors’: intl law claimed to not deal well with this
- consistency in behaviour: e.g. actions in Libya don’t match actions in Syria: why is this?
- UN system needs reform: bureaucratic, institutionalised, large
- burgeoning use of laws: legal regimes, but law isn’t th solution to everything: can complicate things and grind the system to a halt
Challenges to interpretation of international law?
- Vienna Convention, Art 31: contradictory: literal of purpose? –> no clarity as to what a judge can actually do
- customary international law: are states behaving as if there is a norm of international law and that they are bound by this law: how do you determine this? can it be referred to in national/domestic courts? (Oppenheim’s Intl Law says English courts can recognise and give effect to CIL w/o the need for a statute)
1945 UN Charter, Art 51?
- Right to self-defence: used in allowing intervention in Syria
- -> what is an armed attack?
- -> what does ‘occurs’ mean v French translation ‘l’objet’?
- -> does self-defence include prevention?
The Syria Problem: relevant areas of international law?
- Mass flight and migration of Syrians reaching into Europe: Refugee Convention?
- Syria’s obligation to its citizens and no-citizens in its territories : signed up to human rights: ICCPR, Bill of Rights
- internally displaced peoples: stuck in war-torn countries, governed by soft law
- War Crimes - Russia, the Rebels: Geneva Convention
- is there a Responsibility to Protect? in preventing war crimes
The UK and Syria?
- 2013: decided against military intervention in Syria
- Nov 2015: should the UK join airstrikes against ISIS in Syria
- -> use in force: 1) invitation 2) UNSC authorisation 3) self-defence
- -> already in airstrikes in Iraq: invited to do so by Iraqi govt
- Nov 2015: UNSC Resolution 2249: ‘take all necessary measures in compliance with intl law’
