Public International Law: General Principles, Sources, and Subjects

Vocabulary flashcards providing definitions for fundamental terms, doctrines, sources, recognition theories, and territorial concepts in Public International Law based on the lecture material.

Public International Law

A body of principles, norms, and processes regulating relations between States and other international persons, governing conduct affecting the interests of the international community as a whole.

Law of Nature School (Jus Naturale)

The legal theory holding that law is inherently bound to an objective, universal moral order that exists independently of human will or compacts and can be discovered through natural reason.

Hugo Grotius

Known as the Father of Modern International Law, he secularized natural law by arguing that universal principles of justice can be deciphered through human reason alone, separating jus gentium from jus naturale.

Civitas Maxima (Supreme State)

Christian Wolff's concept positing that because nations cannot physically gather to vote on laws, the collective will of nations flows from a supranational entity determined by what civilized nations agree upon using right reason.

Emer de Vattel

Author of Le Droit des gens (1758) who rejected Wolff's Supreme State, viewing Europe as a network of sovereign, independent states bound by shared interests, diplomacy, and the balance of power.

Foedus Pacificum (Federation of Free States)

Immanuel Kant's concept in Perpetual Peace proposing that nations must escape pure warfare through a voluntary, expanding federation of republican states rather than a single world government.

Positivist School

The legal doctrine asserting that the binding force of international law derives strictly from the express or implied consent and agreement of sovereign states, rather than abstract moral principles.

Law of Coordination

A legal system operating horizontally between equal sovereign states negotiating rules without a supreme world legislature, contrasting with domestic law which functions as a law of subordination.

Lex Lata

The law as it currently exists in observable texts, treaties, state practice, and positive rules.

Lex Ferenda

The law as it ought to be based on moral, ethical, or policy ideals.

John Austin's Command Theory

Theory defining positive law strictly as a sovereign command backed by threats of sanctions; classified international law as positive international morality or law improperly so called due to the lack of a global sovereign.

Eclectic / Grotian School

A compromise approach considering international law binding because it is both right and good under natural law and voluntarily agreed upon by states under positive law, with natural law prevailing in case of conflict.

Private International Law (Conflict of Laws)

The body of domestic rules applicable when a legal issue contains a foreign element, determining whether local courts have jurisdiction and which country's law applies to cross-border private disputes.

Doctrine of Incorporation

The principle codified in Article II, Section 2 of the 1987 Philippine Constitution declaring that generally accepted principles of international law automatically become part of domestic law without legislative enactment.

Doctrine of Transformation

The dualist principle codified in Article VII, Section 21 of the 1987 Philippine Constitution requiring treaties and international agreements to obtain legislative concurrence (two-thirds of the Senate) to become internal domestic law.

Mejoff v. Director of Prisons

A Philippine Supreme Court case applying the Doctrine of Incorporation to order the release of a detained alien by invoking the non-arbitrary detention principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as customary international law.

Kuroda v. Jalandoni

A Philippine Supreme Court ruling holding that customary rules governing war crimes and humanitarian law are automatically incorporated into Philippine law regardless of whether the state formally signed the underlying treaties.

Article 38(1) of the ICJ Statute

The primary provision listing the sources applied by the International Court of Justice: treaties, international custom, general principles of law, and subsidiary means (judicial decisions and teachings of publicists).

Ex Aequo et Bono

The power granted under Article 38(2) of the ICJ Statute allowing the Court to decide a case based on equity, fairness, and justice, disregarding strict rules of positive law if all contesting parties agree.

Article 59 of the ICJ Statute

The provision explicitly restricting ICJ judgments by stating that decisions have no binding force except between the contesting parties and in respect of that particular case, rejecting the common-law doctrine of stare decisis.

Pacta Sunt Servanda

The fundamental customary and conventional rule (codified in Article 26 VCLT) dictating that every treaty in force is binding upon the parties to it and must be performed in good faith.

Pacta Tertiis Nec Nocent Nec Prosunt

The rule codified in Article 34 of the VCLT stating that a treaty creates neither obligations nor rights for a third state without its express consent.

Traités-Lois (Law-Making Treaties)

Multilateral agreements that establish general, objective norms intended to govern state conduct continuously across the international community.

Traités-Contrats (Contract Treaties)

Bilateral or limited agreements designed to achieve a specific transactional outcome between identified parties, whose obligations are satisfied and discharged once fulfilled.

State Practice (Usus)

The objective physical element of customary international law consisting of continuous, widespread, and virtually uniform state conduct over time.

Opinio Juris Sive Necessitatis

The subjective, psychological element of custom requiring states to act out of a conviction that the conduct is compulsory under a legal rule rather than driven by courtesy or convenience.

Comitas Gentium (International Comity)

Non-binding diplomatic acts of courtesy, neighborliness, and mutual respect carried out without any legal compulsion.

Persistent Objector Rule

The doctrine permitting a state to exempt itself from an emerging customary norm if it demonstrates clear, explicit, and continuous objection starting from the earliest stages of the norm's formation.

Jus Cogens (Peremptory Norm)

A non-derogable norm accepted and recognized by the international community as a whole from which no deviation is permitted, voiding any conflicting treaty or custom.

UN General Assembly Resolution 2625 (1970)

The landmark Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States, elaborating core UN Charter principles into customary law.

Sovereign Equality

The principle that every state possesses equal legal rights and duties regardless of economic, military, or political power, ensuring no state is legally superior to another.

Ex Injuria Jus Non Oritur

The principle stating that legal rights cannot arise from an unlawful act.

Audi Alteram Partem

A procedural justice rule meaning hear the other side, requiring that parties receive a fair opportunity to present arguments and evidence.

Nemo Judex in Causa Sua

The principle of procedural equity requiring that no one should be a judge in their own cause.

Lex Specialis Derogat Legi Generali

The legal canon establishing that a specific rule prevails over a general rule.

Lex Posterior Derogat Legi Priori

The legal canon establishing that a later enacted law prevails over an earlier inconsistent law.

Subject of International Law

An entity possessing international legal personality, directly holding rights and obligations, with the capacity to bring international claims and incur international responsibility.

Object of International Law

An entity, territory, or resource affected or regulated by international law that lacks direct legal agency, standing, or capacity on the international plane.

Montevideo Convention (1933)

The treaty setting out the four objective qualifications of statehood under customary international law: permanent population, defined territory, government, and capacity to enter into relations with other states.

Constitutive Theory of Recognition

The minority view asserting that the political act of recognition by existing sovereign states is a necessary legal precondition that creates an entity's international statehood.

Declarative Theory of Recognition

The majority view asserting that recognition merely acknowledges the pre-existing factual existence of statehood without creating legal personality itself.

Stimson Doctrine

The policy mandating non-recognition of any territorial acquisition, special advantage, or situation brought about through the unlawful threat or use of force.

Estrada Doctrine

The policy of refraining from issuing formal declarations recognizing or denying revolutionary regimes, instead maintaining or withdrawing diplomatic personnel based on practical necessity.

Wilson-Tobar Doctrine

The doctrine advocating non-recognition of any foreign government established through revolutionary means until constitutional reorganization occurs via free elections.

Drago Doctrine

The principle codified in the 1907 Hague Convention prohibiting recourse to armed force for the recovery of contract debts claimed by a state as due to its nationals.

De Jure Recognition

Formal, complete, and irrevocable recognition extended to a state or government fully satisfied as meeting all legal standards of permanence, stability, and legitimacy.

De Facto Recognition

Provisional, cautious, and revocable recognition extended to a regime exercising effective physical control over territory while its legal legitimacy remains uncertain.

Internal Sovereignty

A state's supreme, exclusive legal power within its physical borders to exercise prescriptive, adjudicative, and enforcement jurisdiction over its territory and population.

External Sovereignty

A state's legal independence from external dictation, ensuring equal legal standing in the international community under the principle par in parem non habet imperium.

Res Nullius

Territory currently belonging to no state, but legally susceptible to lawful acquisition and sovereignty through effective occupation.

Res Communis

Spatial zones (such as the high seas and outer space) belonging to the international community as a whole that are legally incapable of sovereign national appropriation.

Imperium

The public legal capacity, political competence, and sovereign authority exercised by a state over a geographic territory and its inhabitants under international law.

Dominium

The legal ownership of private or public real estate, land parcels, or physical assets under domestic municipal property law.

Effective Occupation

An original mode of acquiring terra nullius requiring both animus occupandi (intent to act as sovereign) and corpus (actual, continuous, and peaceful display of state authority).

Acquisitive Prescription

The acquisition of territorial sovereignty over non-terra nullius land through long-continued, peaceful exercise of state authority accompanied by the acquiescence or silence of the prior sovereign.

Accretion

The natural physical process (such as alluvion or volcanic emergence) that creates new land, automatically extending a coastal or riparian state's territorial sovereignty.

Cession

The derivative, bilateral mode of transferring territorial sovereignty from one state to another through a formal international treaty.

Erga Omnes Obligations

Legal obligations owed by a state toward the international community as a whole, in whose protection all states are deemed to possess a legal interest and standing.