assignment on public international law

• Careers & Service
• Using the Library
• Special Collections
• Legal Data Lab
• Search the Catalog

     ALERT: The shelter in place order has been lifted, but all UVA Library locations will remain closed today, November 14.

International Law Guide

• International Courts and Tribunals
• International Organizations
• Private International Law
• Selected Topics in Public International Law

See also...

Foreign Law Guide

General Guides and Resources for Public International Law

• GlobaLex Research guides to international law (by subject) and foreign law (by jurisdiction) from NYU's Hauser Global Law School Program.

• ASIL Research Guide to Public International Law An up-to-date guide to treaty and other public international law research with an emphasis on online resources. From the American Society of International Law.

Criminal Law

• ASIL Research Guide to International Criminal Law
• Research Guides to the International Criminal Courts for the Former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Sierra Leone From GlobaLex.
• Comparative Criminal Procedure: A Selected Bibliography From GlobaLex.
• International Criminal Court Legal Tools Provides access to documents important to international criminal law, including treaties, judgments and decisions, summaries of domestic criminal justice systems in many countries including relevant statutes or codes, and commentary on international criminal law and other aspects of international law.

Environmental Law

• ECOLEX: A Gateway to Environmental Law
• United Nations Environment Programme
• ASIL Research Guide to International Environmental Law
• A Basic Guide to International Environmental Legal Research From GlobaLex.

Human Rights and Humanitarian Law

• UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
• OHCHR Jurisprudence Database Contains recommendations and findings from the various UN human rights committees that consider complaints from individuals.
• Refworld UNHCR's comprehensive information source on refugee status includes treaties, legislation and court decisions, as well as information organized by country and topic.
• European Court of Human Rights Pending cases, judgments, basic texts and a complete index to all ECHR judgments.
• Bayefsky.com: The United Nations Human Rights Treaties
• ICRC's Customary International Humanitarian Law Database A free online version of their two-volume publication.
• University of Minnesota Human Rights Library
• Human Rights Library: Collections on the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and Inter-American Commission on Human Rights From the University of Minnesota.
• ESCR-Net Caselaw Database Database of domestic, international, and quasi-judicial cases and decisions on economic, social and cultural rights.
• U.S. Department of State - Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
• Project Diana: An Online Human Rights Case Archive From Yale Law School.
• ASIL Research Guide to International Human Rights
• ASIL Research Guide to International Humanitarian Law
• International Human Rights Research Guide From GlobaLex.
• ICJ E-bulletin on Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights International Commission of Jurist's free monthly publication of legal developments in the fields of counter-terrorism and human rights.

Intellectual Property

• WIPO: World Intellectual Property Organization
• WIPO Lex Collection of intellectual property legislation (in English) from WIPO member countries.
• AIPPI - International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property An international NGO devoted to the "the development and improvement of intellectual property." The Questions/Committees section contains country-by-country reports on specific intellectual property law topics.
• European Patent Office
• U.S. Patent & Trademark Office General information, forms, and a free searchable patent and trademark database.
• U.S. Copyright Office Copyright basics, law, forms, and other materials available through the Library of Congress, the entity responsible for copyrights.
• ASIL Research Guide to International Intellectual Property Law
• IP Precedents Database Database of English translations of precedential domestic court decisions on IP topics; from the Research Center for the Legal System of Intellectual Property.

Law of the Sea

• United Nations: Oceans and Law of the Sea
• International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea
• International Seabed Authority
• UVA Center for Oceans Law & Policy
• ASIL Research Guide to Law of the Sea

Trade, Investment or Economic Law

• GATT Documents Online From the WTO.
• GATT Digital Library From Stanford University.
• WorldTradeLaw.net
• International Trade Database: Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods From Pace University.
• Trans-Lex.org Research platform for transnational commercial law from the Center for Transnational Law, Cologne University, Germany.
• SICE - Foreign Trade Information System From the Organization of American States.
• United States International Trade Commission
• United States Trade Representative
• Harmonized Tariff Schedule

• ASIL Research Guide to International Economic Law
• ASIL Research Guide to International Commercial Arbitration
• Research Guide on the Harmonization of International Commercial Law From GlobaLex.

Women's Rights

• Women's Human Rights Resources From the University of Toronto.
• Women's Human Rights Documents From the University of Minnesota.
• Women's Rights Links From the University of Minnesota.
• Last Updated: Jul 12, 2023 10:02 AM
• URL: https://libguides.law.virginia.edu/international
• Privacy Statement   |  
• University of Virginia   |  
• Emergency Information

Public International Law Research

• Introduction to Public International Law
• U.S. Treaties
• Non-U.S. Treaties
• United Nations
• World Trade Organization
• African Union
• Association of Southeast Asian Nations
• Council of Europe
• Organization of American States
• International Court of Justice
• International Criminal Court
• African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights
• European Court of Human Rights
• Inter-American Court of Human Rights
• Ad Hoc International Criminal Tribunals

Reference Librarian

Research Guide Overview

Public international law research guide  .

"World Flag Map" by Mason Vank. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:World_Flag_map.png .

Public international law can be generally defined as "the law of nations." It encapsulates a variety of different legal subjects, including diplomatic relations, treaties, international organizations, and customary international law. It largely governs and structures the interactions between nation states and international organizations. In certain instances, public international law can also govern the legal interactions between nation states and individual citizens. It should not be confused with private international law , which is concerned with the conflicts between national laws and determining which national law to apply to specific situations.

This guide provides an overview of the major topics in international law and highlights important resources and research strategies that can be used when researching in this area of the law. This Research Guide is organized into the following sections, each with multiple subsections:

International Organizations

International Courts & Tribunals

• African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights
• Ad Hoc International Criminal Tribunals  

Related Research Guides

The UNC Law Library also provides more in-depth treatment of the following international law topics:

• International Humanitarian Law
• Next: Treaties >>
• Last Updated: Oct 19, 2023 4:42 PM
• URL: https://guides.lib.unc.edu/internationallaw

15.2 International Law

Learning outcomes.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Define and identify sources of international law.
• Explain how state sovereignty informs international law.
• Differentiate between the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC).
• Discuss the development of key areas of international law, including the law of the sea, the Geneva Conventions, and human rights law.

International law is a set of formal and informal rules that loosely govern the international system, setting parameters around the conduct of state and non-state actors. In the absence of a central global government, international law plays a critical role in increasing the predictability of international relations, helping to counteract the anarchy of the system by prescribing norms and setting expectations of behavior. It facilitates state interactions in “common” places, such as the air and the sea, and helps promote peace and lessen the impact of conflict. International laws govern airline travel, commerce, maritime law, human rights, the development and use of weapons, and the environment, among other areas.

International law is not found in a single book or document; rather, it is the sum total of international treaties, other international agreements, and customary law , which is derived from the long-time practices of states (see Chapter 11: Courts and Law ). International law has developed out of functional necessity, as in the cases of international transportation, commerce, or communications, for example, or because of broad consensus around moral or immoral behavior, as in issues of human rights and the laws of war.

Two courts adjudicate international law: the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which has jurisdiction over disputes between states, and the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has jurisdiction over individual criminal behavior such as war crimes or genocide. Some other international organizations such as the European Union and the World Trade Organization also have legal systems that adjudicate disputes between member states.

How Does International Law Establish the Rights and Obligations of States?

The recognition of state sovereignty provides the foundation for international law. Typically, sovereign states willingly enter into agreements that they believe will benefit them in some way, with the understanding that by signing a treaty they agree to its terms, including obligations and constraints on their behavior. The United Nations (UN), a global organization bringing together nearly every state in the world to promote peace and stability, hosts a repository of more than 500 active treaties across every conceivable issue in international relations. 4 Signatory states may monitor or punish states that do not fulfill their treaty obligations. In this way, all individual, sovereign parties to a treaty ensure that they are treated fairly under the terms of the agreement and that they receive the benefits they are due.

Some treaties require states to modify their domestic policies. For instance, states that sign the Paris Climate Accord commit to solve a common problem, climate change , by taking certain steps in their own country. Signatory countries that fail to take those steps may be acting within their sovereign rights, but if they signed the treaty, those domestic actions (or that domestic inaction) are now regulated by international law. States that sign international conventions like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or the Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) commit to follow the guidelines set forth in those documents.

Examples of International Law

Three particularly well-developed areas of international law are the law of the sea , the Geneva Conventions , and human rights law . They illustrate how functional needs and moral obligations have driven the development of international law and helped states acquire global goods.

The United Nations convened the first conference on the law of the sea in 1958. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) was signed in 1982 and came into force in 1994. Among other things, the UNCLOS clarifies where countries’ boundaries extend into the ocean, who “owns” the fish in the water, and who has the right to use sea traffic lanes. UNCLOS identifies state “rights, freedoms and obligations” in areas such as shipping, fishing, wrecks and cultural heritage, and the protection of the marine environment. 5

All UN member states sign the Geneva Conventions, a series of treaties and protocols that codify international humanitarian law. Through the efforts of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the first Geneva Convention was signed in 1864, allowing noncombatants to treat wounded soldiers in the battlefield. There are now four Geneva Convention treaties—the fourth of which establishes a legal definition of war crimes—all focused on protecting civilians and prisoners of war during military conflicts.

Former UN Ambassador Susan Rice Discusses Geneva Conventions and American Red Cross Curriculum

On the 60 th anniversary of the signing of the Geneva Conventions, then-UN Ambassador Susan Rice discussed the United States commitment to supporting international humanitarian law.

The Geneva Conventions serve as the basis for a much broader body of international human rights law that includes nine core human rights treaties that extend beyond wartime behavior. These treaties recognize the “inalienable rights” of people and codify crimes against humanity. They call upon all states to prevent genocide , which they define as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group,” 6 and to punish those who perpetrate it.

All UN member states have ratified at least one of the nine core human rights treaties, and 80 percent have ratified four or more, accepting the obligations and duties under international law to respect, protect, and promote human rights. 7 In 2001, the international community developed a principle called Responsibility to Protect (R2P) , which justifies international intervention to protect human rights. Arising from the horror at the complacency of the international community during the Rwandan genocide and the ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia during the 1990s, in 2005 world leaders at the UN World Summit unanimously agreed to adopt R2P. 8 The philosophy behind R2P is that “state sovereignty carrie[s] with it the obligation of the State to protect its own people, and that if the State [is] unwilling or unable to do so, the responsibility shift[s] to the international community to use diplomatic, humanitarian and other means to protect them.” 9 R2P obliges state governments to prevent crimes against humanity, and if they do not, it specifies that the United Nations Security Council may intervene to protect at-risk populations.

Amal Clooney, International Human Rights Lawyer

In this video clip, international human rights lawyer Amal Clooney delivers a statement to the UN Security Council on her work representing women who have been victims of international crimes against humanity at the hands of ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, a militant extremist group that the United Nations has designated a terrorist organization) and asks the international community to bring the perpetrators to justice.

How Is International Law Enforced?

Enforcing international law requires the will and power of states. This can be a challenge for a variety of reasons including the risk of hostile confrontation, the potential damage to valuable international relationships, and the reluctance to interfere with state sovereignty by intervening in domestic affairs. States are rarely punished for violations of international human rights law that happen within their borders.

Beginning in 2017, the Myanmar government launched a campaign against the Rohingya, an ethnic minority, and in the years since observers have accused the government of burning down villages and engaging in systematic rape and torture in violation of human rights treaties Myanmar has signed. In cases like these, in which a government violates an international law within its own borders, the international community may be unwilling or unable to enforce treaty obligations. 10 The groups suffering these human rights abuses are typically without political or military power and have little recourse if the international community is unwilling to come to their aid, even if there is broad agreement that international law is being broken.

International law is the “judicial branch” of global governance. Within a country, judicial decisions are meaningful when, if necessary, the executive branch has the ability to enforce them. Because there is no executive branch in the global governance system, international laws are difficult to enforce. Sometimes powerful states decide to enforce international law, but this is not guaranteed and often depends upon power imbalances (powerful states are more likely to get away with noncompliance than weak states), state interests (states that are allied with powerful states may get away with noncompliance more than enemies), and the perceived ease of halting the bad behavior.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ)

The International Court of Justice (ICJ), also called the World Court, is headquartered in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands. The ICJ was the original judicial institution of the United Nations.

The ICJ was founded in 1945 to resolve disputes between states. Any UN member state can bring a case to the ICJ. The ICJ’s jurisdiction is limited to interstate disputes and advisory opinions for United Nations bodies. The most common types of cases states bring before the ICJ involve boundary and resource disputes. About a third of UN member states—not including the United States—have signed a document agreeing to be bound by the ICJ’s rulings. Since its founding, the ICJ has issued approximately 160 rulings, including both resolutions to interstate disputes and advisory opinions. 12

The International Criminal Court (ICC)

When egregious human rights crimes are perpetuated on domestic groups and do not cross state boundaries, they are particularly challenging to punish as the doctrine of state sovereignty protects internal affairs. Following the 1994 Rwandan genocide and “ethnic cleansing” in the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, the UN established international criminal tribunals to help bring the perpetrators to justice and to end impunity , or the lack of punishment for criminal behavior. Given the costs and logistics associated with these temporary and issue-specific courts, in 1998 the United Nations Rome Statute established the International Criminal Court (ICC) as a permanent court to oversee such cases.

The ICC was designed to address problems outside the scope of the ICJ, particularly to bring to justice individuals accused of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. In 2018, the ICC’s jurisdiction was expanded to cover the crime of aggression. Thus far, the ICC has heard 30 cases and is investigating multiple others. 13

Over 120 states are party to the Rome Statute, but powerful states with global reach like Russia, China, and the United States have been reluctant to recognize the legitimacy of the ICC, fearing it will infringe on state sovereignty and be used as a political weapon against soldiers or other nationals abroad. The United States has established a network of bilateral treaties with countries around the world promising not to prosecute any US citizen through the ICC. 14

How Does International Law Contribute to Global Governance?

As doctoral researcher Heath Pickering notes, “agreements to norms and treaties have . . . increased international institutions, given rise to non-state actors, and rapidly developed the contemporary customary and treaty based rules system.” 15 Given the relative lack of enforcement mechanisms, state compliance with international law is surprisingly high. Most states comply with their obligations most of the time, and state leaders typically couch their actions in the language of international law, feeling compelled to justify their behavior according to accepted norms. The more states comply and feel the need to explain their behavior in common terms accepted by the international community, the more predictable international relations will be.

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

This book may not be used in the training of large language models or otherwise be ingested into large language models or generative AI offerings without OpenStax's permission.

Want to cite, share, or modify this book? This book uses the Creative Commons Attribution License and you must attribute OpenStax.

Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/introduction-political-science/pages/1-introduction

• Authors: Mark Carl Rom, Masaki Hidaka, Rachel Bzostek Walker
• Publisher/website: OpenStax
• Book title: Introduction to Political Science
• Publication date: May 18, 2022
• Location: Houston, Texas
• Book URL: https://openstax.org/books/introduction-political-science/pages/1-introduction
• Section URL: https://openstax.org/books/introduction-political-science/pages/15-2-international-law

© Jan 3, 2024 OpenStax. Textbook content produced by OpenStax is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License . The OpenStax name, OpenStax logo, OpenStax book covers, OpenStax CNX name, and OpenStax CNX logo are not subject to the Creative Commons license and may not be reproduced without the prior and express written consent of Rice University.

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

• We're Hiring!
• Help Center

Public International Law; Sources of International Law assignment

Q) ‘Customary international law is… derived primarily from state practice, that is to say, unilateral action by various states, although it frequently draws in turn upon the principles embodied in bilateral and limited multilateral treaties.’ (Canadian Representative to the 1st Committee of the UN General Assembly 1970) Analyse and discuss.

Related Papers

Camilla Ravagnan

• What rules govern the formation of CIL? The conduct-centred model • The CIL approach to state behaviour: states as agents with legal motivations • What are the material sources of CIL? • Identifying particular rules of CIL: the tipping point • (Why) do states comply with CIL? • Conclusion CHAPTER OVERVIEW This chapter focuses on what customary international law (CIL) is and how we can identify it. CIL is an important source of international law as it is the only universally binding branch of public international law (PIL). It is also controversial because of this claim to universal application. This chapter first briefly maps the theories of CIL and then turns its attention to the dominant, conduct-centred model of CIL in international law. It then focuses on identification of particular CIL rules and how CIL evolves and changes.The chapter concludes with a discussion of how we can approach compliance with CIL.

Pravni zapisi

Milos Hrnjaz

The main objective of this paper is to critically assess the dominant additive theory of the formation of Customary International Law by using the concept of discursive normative practice and the work of Gerald Postema. My central conclusion is that the use of this concept provides an explanation of the process of formation of Customary International Law that is superior to the additive theory which consists of two elements - practice and opinio juris. On the other hand, Postema's theory also has its own weaknesses, and this paper explores ways to improve it.

This paper discusses the relationship between the sources of international law; specifically discussing the complex entanglement of the international law of treaties and custom.

Philisita alaha

International Community Law Review

Noora Arajarvi

Over the last few decades, the methodology for the identification of customary international law (cil) has been changing. Both elements of cil – practice and opinio juris – have assumed novel and broader forms, as noted in the Reports of the Special Rapporteur of the International Law Commission (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016). This contribution discusses these Reports and the draft conclusions, and reaction by States in the Sixth Committee of the United Nations General Assembly (unga), highlighting the areas of consensus and contestation. This ties to the analysis of the main doctrinal positions, with special attention being given to the two elements of cil, and the role of the unga resolutions. The underlying motivation is to assess the real or perceived crisis of cil, and the author develops the broader argument maintaining that in order to retain unity within international law, the internal limits of cil must be carefully asserted.

Noora Arajärvi

Over the last few decades, the methodology for the identification of customary international law (CIL) has been changing. Both elements of CIL – practice and opinion juris – have assumed novel and broader forms, as noted in the Reports of the Special Rapporteur of the International Law Commission (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016). This contribution discusses these Reports and the draft conclusions, and reaction by States in the Sixth Committee of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), highlighting the areas of consensus and contestation. This ties to the analysis of the main doctrinal positions, with special attention being given to the two elements of CIL, and the role of the UNGA resolutions. The underlying motivation is to assess the real or perceived crisis of CIL, and the author develops the broader argument maintaining that in order to retain unity within international law, the internal limits of CIL must be carefully asserted.

Dr Vassilis P Tzevelekos

This is a brief introduction to a special journal issue on international customary law. The note offers information on the studies published in the issue and identifies two (interlinked) threads that connect them, namely state-centrism in custom making and the role of state will/consent (associated with the voluntarist school of thought within international legal positivism). Moreover, the note links the papers published in the issue with the work of the ILC on the identification of international customary law and argues that, to a certain degree, while offering authoritative guidance on the identification of custom, the ILC defines customary international law as a source of law. This, in a sense, overlaps with the function of judges/courts, which also define custom as a source of international law when they employ that source as a means to identify a customary rule. This means that ILC's approach on customary law may limit the power/authority of judges/courts to construct their own definition of custom as a source. The question to be asked then is how flexible or rigid should ILC's definition of customary law be.

Iowa Law Review

Ryan Scoville

Established doctrine holds that customary international law (CIL) arises when a substantial portion of states consistently engage in a practice out of a sense of legal obligation. Contemporary litigation requires federal courts to apply this doctrine to identify the contours of CIL in a diverse collection of cases ranging from civil actions under the Alien Tort Statute to criminal prosecutions under the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act. Yet it is no easy task to follow through: language barriers, limited staff, docket pressures, deficient briefing, and spotty access to foreign legal authorities make it difficult for judges to conduct the kinds of global surveys on which CIL depends. This Article answers a simple question: given the various institutional limitations they face, how do federal judges go about ascertaining customary international law? Conducting a citation analysis of decisions published since the Supreme Court’s 2004 decision in Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain, the Article reveals that courts simply do not follow the doctrine they purport to accept. Rather than carry out extensive research into foreign practices and views, courts tend to focus primarily on U.S. government sources, and on American legal scholarship that typically disregards most foreign states. Official and academic sources from Western Europe are relevant, but only to a modest degree. The rest of the world, meanwhile, is almost categorically irrelevant. These patterns reflect an under-inclusive occidentalism reminiscent of the historical law of nations, create a material risk of erroneous judgments, and likely weaken the legitimacy of U.S. precedents abroad. The Article closes with suggestions for reform.

Wroclaw Review of Law, Administration & Economics

Genowefa Grabowska

RELATED PAPERS

CULTUR - Revista de Cultura e Turismo

Kely César Martins de Paiva

SABRINA Olivera

Current Science

Musarrat Parween

Journal of Rural Studies

Maria Fonte

Revista médica de Chile

Julio Bruetman

Organic letters

Thanh Vuong Nguyen

Science (New York, N.Y.)

Yakov Gilinskiy

Parasitology Research

Philippe Vignoles

Journal of the Neurological Sciences

Freimut Juengling

Archives of Transport

Roman Vernyhora

International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications

Muhammad Sulaiman

Rocznik Integracji Europejskiej

Marek Kaźmierczak

IOSR Journal of Agriculture and Veterinary Science

Adil Elgarrai

Word Philocaly Copywriting

Études internationales

Gordon Mace

David Yarowsky

Gait & Posture

Francesco Lucertini

George Mpantes

Muasin Muasin

UoP毕业证成绩单 朴茨茅斯大学毕业证

RELATED TOPICS

•   We're Hiring!
•   Help Center
• Find new research papers in:
• Health Sciences
• Earth Sciences
• Cognitive Science
• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Academia ©2024

Relationship Between International Law and Municipal Law: History, Theories, Status, and Related Aspects

• First Online: 01 January 2015

Cite this chapter

• Bankole Thompson 5  

Part of the book series: International Criminal Justice Series ((ICJS,volume 3))

766 Accesses

The relationship between international law and municipal law has always been a fundamental feature of the study of international law as an academic discipline. Additionally, the practical interaction of the two normative regulatory systems presents tremendous consequences for the conduct of human affairs, nationally and internationally. An understanding of their interrelationship, interaction, and interplay (doctrinally and pragmatically) is essential for a scholarly appreciation of the nature, scope, and dimensions of the concept of universal jurisdiction. This chapter provides a comprehensive analysis of this relationship.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

• Available as PDF
• Read on any device
• Instant download
• Own it forever
• Available as EPUB and PDF
• Durable hardcover edition
• Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
• Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Introduction: The Rule of Law in an Era of Multi-level Governance and Global Legal Pluralism

Legal Validity, Soft Law, and International Human Rights Law

Notes for the History of New Approaches to International Legal Studies: Not a Map but Perhaps a Compass

It is clear that the concept of human dignity has not superseded the concept of state dignity, as indicated by the fact that Article 2(1) of the United Nations Charter enshrines and entrenches the doctrine of sovereign equality of states, reflecting its fundamental character in the conduct of international relations. For the Westphalian model of state sovereign, see Gross 1948 , pp. 20–26.

Schwarzenberger et al. 1976 , p. 35. See also Caplan 2003 , p. 745.

See Bledsoe and Boczek 1987 , pp. 20–25.

Shaw 1997 , p. 100.

See Bledsoe and Boczek 1987 , pp. 9–10; see also Thompson 1990 , p. 89.

Bledsoe and Boczek 1987 , p. 10.

See Shaw 1997 , pp. 100–101; Kelsen 1945 ; Lauterpacht 1950 .

Bledsoe and Boczek 1987 , p. 9.

Shaw 1997 , pp. 102–103.

ICJ Report 1988, pp. 12, 34; 94 ILR, pp. 225, 252.

ICJ Report 1992, pp. 3, 32; 94 ILR, pp. 478, 515. It is also noteworthy, as Shaw reasons, that manifestations of the normative supremacy of international law vis-a-vis municipal law do not imply that the rules of the latter are irrelevant in adjudication processes before international tribunals. For an example of the application of the interaction between the two systems, see Certain German Interests in Polish Upper Silesia Case (PCIJ, series A, No. 7, p. 19), where the Permanent Court of International Justice noted that: “the Court is certainly not called to interpret the Polish Law as such, but there is nothing to prevent the Courts’ giving judgment on the question whether or not, in applying that law, Poland is acting in conformity with its obligations towards Germany under the Geneva Convention”.

Robertson 2002 , p. 39.

U.S. v. Belmont, 301 US 324, 331; 57 S. Ct. 758, 761 (1937; see also the Third Restatement of US Foreign Relations Law, St. Paul 1987, Vol. I pp. 48–52), noted in Shaw 1997 , p. 115.

Committee of United States Citizens Living in Nicaragua v. Reagan 859 F.2d 929 (1988), noted in Shaw 1997 , p. 115.

Macleod v. USA, 229 US 416 (1913), noted in Shaw 1997 , p. 116.

Robertson 2002 , p. 87.

Maclain Wilson v. Department of Trade and Industry (1989) 3 All E.R. 523, 531 per Lord Oliver. See also Lord Templeman’s position in the same case, implying that as far as individuals were concerned, such treaties were res inter alia acta from which they cannot derive rights and by which they cannot be deprived of rights or subjected to obligations, as noted in Shaw 1997 , p. 112.

See the Constitution of Sierra Leone Act No. 6 of 1991.

See Thompson 1997 , p. 119.

See Amnesty International 2012 , p. 5. For an authoritative exposition on the dualist doctrine, see Jennings et al. 1992 , pp. 53–54.

Shaw 1997 , p. 129.

See Shaw 1997 , p. 129 for this rationalization.

See Council for Civil Service Unions v. Minister for the Civil Service [1948] 3 All ER 935, 956.

In the English case of Buttes Gas and Oil Co. (No.3) v. Hammer (No.3) [1982] AC 888; ILR, p 331, Lord Wilberforce stated the law in these terms:

There exists in English law a general principle that the courts will not adjudicate upon the transactions of foreign sovereign states…. It seems desirable to consider this principle…. Not as a variety of ‘act of state’ but one for judicial restraint or abstention.

Amnesty International 2012 , pp. 63–64.

Idem, p. 64. See also Thompson 1997 , p. 270.

Quoted in Olowofoyeku 1993 , p. 1.

State Proceedings Act No. 14 of 2000, section 5(a)(b)(c).

Idem, sections 21 and 23.

Idem, section 7.

Nuremberg Charter, 1946.

Case No. SCSL- 2003-01 –I, 31 May 2004.

See Klip and Sluiter 2006 , pp. 187–201.

See Ruling in case entitled “SC1/2003 between Issa Hassan Sesay alias Issa Sesay, Alieu Kondewa, Moinina Fofanah (Plaintiffs) and the President of the Special Court and the Registrar of the Special Court and the Prosecutor of the Special and the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice (Defendants)”, ruling delivered on 10 May 2005.

See Amnesty International 2012 , p. 64. As observed by Amnesty International, it is a matter of regret that the International Court of Justice has not seen its way clear to overrule its ruling in the Arrest Warrant case in the Democratic Republic of the Congo v. Belgium, Judgment, ICJ Reports 3(2002) that heads of states, heads of government, and foreign ministers are immune from prosecution in foreign courts.

Werle 2009 , p. 236.

Robertson 2002 , p. 399.

Cassese 2008 , p. 308.

Scheffer 2012 , pp. 437–438.

Amnesty International (2012) Sierra Leone: end impunity through universal jurisdiction. http://www.amnesty.org/pt-br/library/info/AFR51/007/2012/en . Accessed 10 Nov 2012

Bledsoe RL, Boczek B (1987) The international law dictionary. Clio Press Ltd., Oxford

Google Scholar  

Caplan LM (2003) State immunity, human rights, and Jus Cogens : a critique of the normative hierarchy theory. Am J Int Law 97(4):741–781

Article   Google Scholar  

Cassese A (2008) International criminal law, 2nd edn. Oxford University Press, Oxford

Certain German Interests in Upper Silesia. PCIJ Series A; No. 7

Gross L (1948) The peace of Westphalia 1648–1948. Am J Int Law 42(1):20–26

Jennings R et al (1992) Oppenheim’s international law, 9th edn. Longman, London

Kelsen H (1945) General theory of law and state. Harvard University Press, Massachusetts

Klip A, Sluiter G (eds) (2006) Annotated leading cases of international criminal tribunals: the Special Court for Sierra Leone 2003–2004. Intersentia, Antwerp

Lauterpacht H (1950) International law and human rights. Praeger, London

Olowofoyeku A (1993) Suing judges: a study of judicial immunity. Clarendon University Press, Oxford

Robertson G (2002) Crimes against humanity: a struggle for global justice, Rev. edn. The New Press, New York

Scheffer D (2012) All the missing souls: a personal history of the war crimes tribunals. Princeton University Press, Princeton

Schwarzenberger G et al (1976) A manual of international law. Professional Books, Milton

Shaw MN (1997) International law, 4th edn. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

Thompson B (1990) Legal problems of economic integration in the West African sub-region. Afr J Int Comp Law 2:85–102

Thompson B (1997) The constitutional history and law of Sierra Leone (1961–1995). University Press of America, Maryland

Werle G (2009) Principles of international criminal law, 2nd edn. T.M.C. Asser Press, The Hague

Book   Google Scholar  

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Criminal Justice Studies, Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, KY, USA

Justice Bankole Thompson

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bankole Thompson .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2015 T.M.C. Asser Press and the author(s)

About this chapter

Thompson, B. (2015). Relationship Between International Law and Municipal Law: History, Theories, Status, and Related Aspects. In: Universal Jurisdiction: The Sierra Leone Profile. International Criminal Justice Series, vol 3. T.M.C. Asser Press, The Hague. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6265-054-1_3

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6265-054-1_3

Published : 13 March 2015

Publisher Name : T.M.C. Asser Press, The Hague

Print ISBN : 978-94-6265-053-4

Online ISBN : 978-94-6265-054-1

eBook Packages : Humanities, Social Sciences and Law Law and Criminology (R0)

Share this chapter

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Societies and partnerships

• Find a journal
• Track your research