International law, summary midterm 1
Summary lecture 1
Chapters: 1.1-1.2 and 4
Concept of legal personality
What is (legal) personality?
“Personality” derives from the Latn root Persona
o Literally means a “mask”
o Social and legal life is performed through masks of personality
Personality represents the recogniton of group or individual’s legitmate existence
o Which identtes/groups do we recognize? How?
Different legal personalites
The queston of personality is oten one of extent since different subjeects may entertain
different sets of rights objligatons
There is no single authority which determines personality or statehood.
What is at stake with legal personality? Subjeects of IL….
…possess internatonal rights and dutes under internatonal law
…objtain the capacity to engage in types of acton, e.g. conclude treates, enter an
internatonal organizaton
Who is an internatonal legal person?
Traditonal View
Only sovereign states can bje persons or subjects under internatonal law
States only possess legitmated authority over peoples and territories
States have a law-making monopoly which bjecomes the bjasis for e.g. bjilateral and
multlateral treates, the commenced and terminaton of war, and the extraditon and
punishment of individuals
The Expanded View
In light of internatonal agreements or customary law, other legal enttes are now capabjle of
having (a) internatonal rights and dutes and (bj) a capacity to act
o International organizaations, supranational entities, corporations and indiiiduals
Concept of internatonal legal personality is a relatve concept: not all subjeects of IL have the same
rights and objligatons
Chapter 1 Foundations and structure of international law
1.1 Introduction
Public international law
Deals with legal issues of concern to more than one state
Defned as a system of law that regulates the interrelatonship of sovereign states and their
rights and dutes with regard to one another
Must bje distnguished from ‘private internatonal law’
o Consists of natonal laws that deal with conficts of law and estabjlish rules for the
treatment of cases that involve a foreign element
Internatonal law refects the society to which it applies
, o As internatonal society bjecomes more specialized and intertwined, so does
internatonal law
One of the consequences of the expanding reach of internatonal law has bjeen the development of
many subj-disciplines. Such as:
Internatonal human rights law
Internatonal law of the sea
Internatonal environmental law etc.
The subjeects of internatonal law (IL)
States
Governments
Peoples
Internatonal organizatons
If you’re not a person under internatonal law, you can’t bjring a claim bjefore an internatonal court!
Only states may bje partes to cases bjefore the Internatonal Court of Justce
Only states may bje partes to the Rome Statute on the Internatonal Criminal Court
Statute is a fancy word for treaty
1.2 A brief history of international law
Internatonal law as we know it today, was invented in Europe, it is also where our bjrief
overview of its history bjegins
15th and 16th century: Europe in the late Middle Ages
o Characterized bjy
Multple levels of different allegiances, rights and objligatons
The universal politcal and religious forces of the Holy Roman Empire and the
Catholic Church
Pope had a great infuence
o A tme when ideas abjout the normatve structure of the world were dominated bjy
developed theories of natural law
Primarily focused on the individual and his or her relatons to the world
Contained an all-embjracing set of ideas abjout natural and social life in the
universe
Applied to states bjy virtue of the fact that rulers were also individuals
o Jus gentium
Law of people/natons and hence inferior to natural law, at tmes simply
perceived as bjeing derived from the more overarching principles of the later
o Despite the abjsence of an elabjorate internatonal legal structure, legal objligatons
and contracts were created for various agreements on the treatment of merchants
or war
o Period of colonialism
o Period of early confrontatons bjetween Spanish explorers and natve Indian
populatons
17th and 18th century
o We bjegan to see the contours of a modern internatonal legal system
o Infuental fgures
Spanish Jesuit Francisco Suárez (1548-1617)
Leading fgure of this period
Suárez was succeeded bjy most famous internatonal lawyer: Dutchman Hugo
Grotus (158u-1645)
His maeor contribjutons to the development of internatonal law:
, The Freedom of the Seas
On the Law of War and Peace
Applied natural law to the conduct of internatonal relatons
Developing the law of natons to make it a practcal tool for
regulatng a variety of areas of internatonal relatons
Emmerich de Vatel (1714-1767)
Pubjlished Law of Natons which contained useful legal guidance for
practtoners of internatonal law
th
The 19 century
o Era of ‘positvism’ / positve law
Only true source of law was state will
Difference with natural law
Positve law does not envisage a universal legal system like natural
law bjut rather one that is fragmented and in which states are bjound
bjy different legal objligatons
o Consensual theory
“unless a state has consented to bje bjound bjy a rule, no internatonal legal
objligaton exists and the state remains enttled to act as it pleases”
o John Austn (1790-1859)
Most radical exponent of legal positvism
He developed the command theory
He defned law as the command of a sovereign, bjacked up bjy sanctons
Abjsence of sovereign in internatonal system meant that internatonal law
could not bje perceived as a genuine legal system, merely as laws of positve
morality
Interwar period
o The destructon and carnage of WW1 dominated the events in this period
o 1919 creaton of the League of Natons
An organizatons tasked with maintaining world peace
o Estabjlishment of the Permanent Court of Internatonal Justce (PCI) bjased in The
Hague in the Netherlands
Period immediately ater the Second World War
o Time of maeor achievements in internatonal law
o The world reacted to the atrocites of the Nazis and wanted to prosecute German
officials for internatonal crimes
o League of Natons replaced bjy United Natons (UN)
Purpose to maintain internatonal peace and security
Built on solid ‘Westphalian’ principles and is bjased on respect for the
principle of equal rights and self-determinaton of peoples and on the
sovereign equality of all its membjers
Serves as an umbjrella structure for a numbjer of important internatonal
organizatons
o Founding treaty of UN / Charter of UN
Introduced:
Security Council
Wants to maintain internatonal peace and security
To authorize forceful measures
General Assembjly
Here, all membjers are represented
Consultatve role
Summary lecture 1
Chapters: 1.1-1.2 and 4
Concept of legal personality
What is (legal) personality?
“Personality” derives from the Latn root Persona
o Literally means a “mask”
o Social and legal life is performed through masks of personality
Personality represents the recogniton of group or individual’s legitmate existence
o Which identtes/groups do we recognize? How?
Different legal personalites
The queston of personality is oten one of extent since different subjeects may entertain
different sets of rights objligatons
There is no single authority which determines personality or statehood.
What is at stake with legal personality? Subjeects of IL….
…possess internatonal rights and dutes under internatonal law
…objtain the capacity to engage in types of acton, e.g. conclude treates, enter an
internatonal organizaton
Who is an internatonal legal person?
Traditonal View
Only sovereign states can bje persons or subjects under internatonal law
States only possess legitmated authority over peoples and territories
States have a law-making monopoly which bjecomes the bjasis for e.g. bjilateral and
multlateral treates, the commenced and terminaton of war, and the extraditon and
punishment of individuals
The Expanded View
In light of internatonal agreements or customary law, other legal enttes are now capabjle of
having (a) internatonal rights and dutes and (bj) a capacity to act
o International organizaations, supranational entities, corporations and indiiiduals
Concept of internatonal legal personality is a relatve concept: not all subjeects of IL have the same
rights and objligatons
Chapter 1 Foundations and structure of international law
1.1 Introduction
Public international law
Deals with legal issues of concern to more than one state
Defned as a system of law that regulates the interrelatonship of sovereign states and their
rights and dutes with regard to one another
Must bje distnguished from ‘private internatonal law’
o Consists of natonal laws that deal with conficts of law and estabjlish rules for the
treatment of cases that involve a foreign element
Internatonal law refects the society to which it applies
, o As internatonal society bjecomes more specialized and intertwined, so does
internatonal law
One of the consequences of the expanding reach of internatonal law has bjeen the development of
many subj-disciplines. Such as:
Internatonal human rights law
Internatonal law of the sea
Internatonal environmental law etc.
The subjeects of internatonal law (IL)
States
Governments
Peoples
Internatonal organizatons
If you’re not a person under internatonal law, you can’t bjring a claim bjefore an internatonal court!
Only states may bje partes to cases bjefore the Internatonal Court of Justce
Only states may bje partes to the Rome Statute on the Internatonal Criminal Court
Statute is a fancy word for treaty
1.2 A brief history of international law
Internatonal law as we know it today, was invented in Europe, it is also where our bjrief
overview of its history bjegins
15th and 16th century: Europe in the late Middle Ages
o Characterized bjy
Multple levels of different allegiances, rights and objligatons
The universal politcal and religious forces of the Holy Roman Empire and the
Catholic Church
Pope had a great infuence
o A tme when ideas abjout the normatve structure of the world were dominated bjy
developed theories of natural law
Primarily focused on the individual and his or her relatons to the world
Contained an all-embjracing set of ideas abjout natural and social life in the
universe
Applied to states bjy virtue of the fact that rulers were also individuals
o Jus gentium
Law of people/natons and hence inferior to natural law, at tmes simply
perceived as bjeing derived from the more overarching principles of the later
o Despite the abjsence of an elabjorate internatonal legal structure, legal objligatons
and contracts were created for various agreements on the treatment of merchants
or war
o Period of colonialism
o Period of early confrontatons bjetween Spanish explorers and natve Indian
populatons
17th and 18th century
o We bjegan to see the contours of a modern internatonal legal system
o Infuental fgures
Spanish Jesuit Francisco Suárez (1548-1617)
Leading fgure of this period
Suárez was succeeded bjy most famous internatonal lawyer: Dutchman Hugo
Grotus (158u-1645)
His maeor contribjutons to the development of internatonal law:
, The Freedom of the Seas
On the Law of War and Peace
Applied natural law to the conduct of internatonal relatons
Developing the law of natons to make it a practcal tool for
regulatng a variety of areas of internatonal relatons
Emmerich de Vatel (1714-1767)
Pubjlished Law of Natons which contained useful legal guidance for
practtoners of internatonal law
th
The 19 century
o Era of ‘positvism’ / positve law
Only true source of law was state will
Difference with natural law
Positve law does not envisage a universal legal system like natural
law bjut rather one that is fragmented and in which states are bjound
bjy different legal objligatons
o Consensual theory
“unless a state has consented to bje bjound bjy a rule, no internatonal legal
objligaton exists and the state remains enttled to act as it pleases”
o John Austn (1790-1859)
Most radical exponent of legal positvism
He developed the command theory
He defned law as the command of a sovereign, bjacked up bjy sanctons
Abjsence of sovereign in internatonal system meant that internatonal law
could not bje perceived as a genuine legal system, merely as laws of positve
morality
Interwar period
o The destructon and carnage of WW1 dominated the events in this period
o 1919 creaton of the League of Natons
An organizatons tasked with maintaining world peace
o Estabjlishment of the Permanent Court of Internatonal Justce (PCI) bjased in The
Hague in the Netherlands
Period immediately ater the Second World War
o Time of maeor achievements in internatonal law
o The world reacted to the atrocites of the Nazis and wanted to prosecute German
officials for internatonal crimes
o League of Natons replaced bjy United Natons (UN)
Purpose to maintain internatonal peace and security
Built on solid ‘Westphalian’ principles and is bjased on respect for the
principle of equal rights and self-determinaton of peoples and on the
sovereign equality of all its membjers
Serves as an umbjrella structure for a numbjer of important internatonal
organizatons
o Founding treaty of UN / Charter of UN
Introduced:
Security Council
Wants to maintain internatonal peace and security
To authorize forceful measures
General Assembjly
Here, all membjers are represented
Consultatve role
