What is Private International Law?


 Private International Law or conflicts of law the status of legally binding rules of general application.
addresses the question of: first, in which legal jurisdiction may a case be heard; and
What is a treaty?
second, the law concerning which jurisdiction applies to the issues in a case. 

Article 2(1)(a) of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties provides that a treaty
What is jus gentium?
 Jus gentium was originally part of Roman Law that the Romans is an international agreement conducted between states in written form and governed
by international law, whether embodied in a single instrument or in two or more related
applied to its dealings with foreigners, especially provincial subjects. Presently, it is used
instruments and whatever particular designation they may be given.
to refer to the natural or common law among nations considered as States within a larger
human society, especially governing the rules of peace and war, national bounderies,
diplomatic exchanges, and extradition. Together with jus inter gentes, jus gentium makes What is jus cogens?
 According to Article 53 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of

up Public International Law. 
 Treaties, a peremptory norm of international law is a norm accepted and recognized by
the international community of states as a whole as a norm from which no derogation is
permitted and which can be modified only by a subsequent norm of general international
What is jus inter gentes?
 Jus inter gentes consists of agreements between nations and law having the same character.
includes the body of treaties, UN conventions, international agreements, and
internationally recognized human rights. 
 What is custom? 
 Custom is a source of international law under Article 38 of the ICJ
Statute. According to the North Sea Continental Shelf Cases, it consists of unwritten rules
Who are the subjects and objects of international law? 
 YE, according to the evinced from the generality and uniformity of the practice of States and is adhered to by

Reparations Case, a subject of international law is an entity capable of possessing
international rights and duties and having the capacity to maintain its rights by bringing
international claims.
Objects of international law, on the other hand, are those who indirectly have rights
under, or are beneficiaries of, international law through subjects of international law. 

such states out of a sense of legal obligation or opinio juris. 

What is the difference between custom and usage? 
 According to most highly qualified
publicist Ian Brownlie, usage is a general practice of States which does not reflect a legal
obligation. Custom on the other hand is a general practice of States borne out of a sense
of legal obligation. 


What are the Sources of International Law?

According to Article 38 of the ICJ Statute, the formal sources of international law include
international conventions, international custom and general principles of law. On the
other hand, judicial decisions and the teachings of the most highly qualified publicists are
a subsidiary means of determining international law.
What is opinio juris?
 According to most highly qualified publicist Brierly, it is the
recognition by States that a certain practice is obligatory and that it requires a conception
that the practice is required by or consistent with prevailing international law. It means
that a State abides by a practice because of a sense of legal obligation, as opposed to
motives of courtesy, fairness, or morality.

Is there a hierarchy among the sources of International Law enumerated in Article What is the concept of a persistent objector?
38?
 No. The provisions are not stated in a hierarchy, but the draftsmen intended to give
A State may not be bound by custom if since the process of formation and development
an order and in one draft the word ‘successively’ was used.
of the custom, such State has expressed his objection to the practice. The evidence of
objection must be clear and there is probably a presumption of acceptance which is to be
What is the difference between formal and material sources of International
rebutted.
Law?
 Formal sources are those legal procedures and methods for the creation of rules
of general application which are legally binding on the addressees. Material sources, on What is a general principle of law? 
 YE, general principles are principles of municipal
the other hand, provide evidence for the existence of rules, which, when proved, have
law common to the legal systems of the world. YE, International tribunals must have
recourse to rules typically found in domestic courts and domestic legal systems in order A State is a type of legal person recognized by international law. According to Article 1 of
to address procedural and other issues. 
 the Montevideo Convention, the State as a person of international law should possess the
following qualifications: first, a permanent population; second, a defined territory; third,
government; and fourth, sovereignty or the capacity to enter into relations with the other
Is the International Court of Justice bound by its past decisions? 
 No. Article 59 of the States.
ICJ Statute provides that the decision of the Court has no binding force except as between
the parties and in respect of a particular case. Thus, the Court does not adhere to the What constitutes a population?
principle of stare decisis and the system of binding precedents. However, it must be noted
that the Court nevertheless strives to maintain judicial consistency. 
 Article 1 of the Montevideo conventions refers to ‘a permanent population’ and connotes
a stable community.

How can the teachings of the most highly qualified publicists be a source of
What is a defined territory?
International Law?
 As a subsidiary means of determining international law, teachings
of most highly qualified publicists only constitute evidence of the law, although in some It is not necessary that there exists a fully defined territory. What is important, however,
subjects, individual writers have had a formative influence. 
 is the existence of a stable political community in control of a certain geographic area.

What kind of ‘government’ is necessary?

What is the difference between monism and dualism (or pluralism)

According to most highly qualified publicist Rosalyn Higgins, it is necessary that an

According to Most Highly Qualified Publicist Hersch Lauterpacht, Monism takes the form
effective government exists with centralized administrative and legislative organs.
of assertion of the supremacy of international law even within the municipal sphere
coupled with well-developed views of the individual as a subject of international law.
What is sovereignty as contemplated in the Montevideo Convention?
Dualism on the other hand points to the essential difference of international and
municipal law, consisting primarily in the fact that the two systems regulate different
According to Former Justice of the International Court of Justice, Jessup, Pursuant to the
subject matter.
Montevideo Convention, sovereignty or independence is the capacity to enter into
relations with other States.
What is the theory of co-ordination?
What is sovereignty? According to most highly qualified publicist Ian Brownlie,
As propounded by Rosseau, the theory of coordination posits that municipal and
sovereignty is the right of a State to exercise supreme political authority over a geographic
international law have a common field of operation. There is no automatic abrogation of
region and its inhabitants.
internal rules in conflict with obligations in the international plane.

What is the doctrine of incorporation? 
 According to most highly qualified publicist Ian
Brownlie, the doctrine of incorporation presupposes that customary rules are to be
considered part of the law of the land and enforced as such, with the qualification that
they are incorporated only so far as is consistent with legislative acts or prior judicial
decisions. 


What is the doctrine of transformation? 
 It means that in order for international law to
become part of the law of the land, it must be expressly and specifically transformed into
domestic law through the appropriate constitutional machinery such as an act of
Congress.