ECON 1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 27: Avail, Contract, Peremptory Norm
Document Summary
Sources of law determine the rules of legal society and, like national legal societies, the international legal society has its own set of rules. In essence, the sources of international law contain the legal answers to the question that cannot be answered in international law. Legal sources enable legal subjects to distinguish between norms of a legal character and those of a merely political, moral or ethical nature. The adoption of a convention, also called a treaty, is the most direct and formal way for states to create rights and obligations under international law. The treaty is the only instrument available to two or more states that want to enter into some sort of formal legal relationship. A treaty can only create legal obligations for the consenting states (consent is decisive). The effect of a treaty is expressed in pacta sunt servanda; states are bound to honour their treaty-based obligations. This is the third source in article 38.
