Political Science 1020E Chapter Notes -Soft Law, Peremptory Norm, Erga Omnes
27 Jan 2013
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Document Summary
The word source of law first non-legal sense it refers to casual or historical influence explaining the factual existence of a given rule of law or at a given place and time. In the legal sense, the term means the criteria under which a rule is accepted as valid in the given legal system at issue. These criteria distinguish binding law from legally non-binding other social or moral norms. In the decentralized international legal system, lacking a hierarchical structure, the problem of finding the law is much more complicated. There is no authority to adopt universally binding legislation and no compulsory jurisdiction of international courts and tribunals without the consent of states. But customary law has still retained its predominance over treaty law or other sources in many other areas such as for example state immunity, or state responsibility. The statue of the icj speaks of international conventions, whether general or particular, establishing rules expressly recognized by the contesting states.
