International Law & Diplomacy
International Law & Diplomacy
Four sources of international law are treaties, custom, general principles of law (such
as equity) and legal scholarship (including past judicial decisions). The most important source
of international law is treaties. A principle in international law states that treaties, once signed
and ratified must be observed. State violate the terms of treaties they have signed only if the
matter is very important or the penalties for such a violation seem very small. Treaties and
other international obligations such as debts are binding on successor governments whether the
new government takes power through an election, a coup, or a revolution. For example, after
the revolutions in Eastern Europe around 1990, newly democratic governments were held
responsible for debts incurred by their communist predecessors. Even when the Soviet Union
broke up, Russia as the successor state had to guarantee that Soviet debts would be paid and
Soviet treaties honoured. Although revolution does not free a state from its obligations, some
treaties have built-in escape clauses that let state legally withdraw from them, after giving due
notice without violating international law. For example, the United States in 2001 invoked the
six month opt-out provision of the ABM treaty.
The second major source of international law is custom. If states behave toward each
other in a certain way for long enough, their behaviour may become generally accepted practise
with the status of law. Western international law, though not Islamic law tends to be positivist
in this regard as it draws on actual customs, the practical realities of self-interest and the need
for consent rather than on an abstract concept of divine or natural law.
General principles of law also one of the source of international law. Actions such as
theft and assault recognized in most national legal systems as crimes tend to have the same
meaning in an international context. Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait was illegal under treaties signed
by Iraq including the UN Charter and that of the Arab League and under the custom Iraq and
Kuwait had established of living in peace as sovereign states. Beyond treaty or custom, the
invasion violated international law because of the general principle that one state may not
overrun its neighbour’s territory and annex it by force.
The forth source of international law is legal scholarship. The written arguments of
judges and lawyers around the world on the issues in question. Only the writings of the most
highly qualified and respected legal figures can be taken into account and then only to resolve
points not resolves by the first three sources of international law.