International Law Study Guide Flashcards

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, legal concepts, doctrines, and principles from the International Law Study Guide.

Formal Sources

Mechanisms that give legal validity to international rules, such as treaties, custom, and constitutions.

Material Sources

Influences or factors that shape the content of the law, such as moral values, religion, and historical events.

Opinio Juris

The psychological element of customary international law requiring that states follow a practice out of a sense of legal obligation, rather than habit, convenience, or morality.

Persistent Objector

A state that clearly, explicitly, publicly, and continuously rejects the formation of a customary norm from its outset, making the state exempt from the rule once it crystallizes into customary law.

Pacta Sunt Servanda

The foundational principle codified in Article 26 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties stating that agreements must be kept and treaties are binding upon the parties that consent to them.

Jus Cogens

Peremptory norms of fundamental international law that cannot be overridden by treaty or consent, rendering any conflicting treaty void.

Nuclear Tests Principle

The rule established in 1974 that a state can create binding international legal obligations through unilateral public declarations when there is a clear intention to be bound and other states rely on it in good faith.

Material Law

The formal mechanism through which international obligations become part of a state's internal domestic legal order, such as through direct application or national legislation.

Executive Certificate

A formal statement issued by the executive branch in dualist systems certifying the validity of an international obligation for domestic courts to rely upon as authoritative evidence.

Exequatur

A judicial authorization through which a domestic court allows a foreign court judgment or arbitral award to be enforced locally after ensuring compliance with public policy and procedural fairness.

Montevideo Criteria

The four required elements of statehood established in the 1933 Montevideo Convention: a permanent population, a defined territory, an effective government, and the capacity to enter into relations with other states.

Merger and Annexation

Modes of state extinction where Merger involves two or more states uniting to form a new state (extinguishing predecessors), while Annexation involves one state being absorbed into an existing state, losing its separate legal personality.

Constitutive Theory of Recognition

The theory asserting that legal personality and statehood are created upon recognition by other states, meaning an unrecognized entity lacks rights and duties under international law.

Declaratory Theory of Recognition

The theory asserting that recognition merely acknowledges existing legal statehood achieved through objective criteria, meaning an unrecognized entity still possesses legal rights and obligations.

Effective Control Doctrine

A fact-based doctrine holding that a new government should be recognized if it actually, stably, and effectively controls the territory and population of the state, regardless of how it gained power.

Tobar Doctrine

A normative doctrine stating that recognition should be denied to any government that comes to power through unconstitutional or undemocratic means.

Estrada Doctrine

A doctrine under which states refrain from making formal declarations recognizing or refusing to recognize foreign governments, choosing instead to maintain or suspend diplomatic relations as needed.

Persona Non Grata

A formal declaration by a host state informing a sending state that a diplomatic agent is no longer welcome, requiring them to leave the country without the host state needing to provide a reason.

Diplomatic Bag

A properly sealed and clearly marked official container used for correspondence between a diplomatic mission and its home government, which enjoys absolute inviolability from being opened, detained, or x-rayed.

Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)

A maritime zone extending from 12 to 200 nautical miles from the baseline where the coastal state has sovereign rights for exploring, exploiting, conserving, and managing natural resources.

Nottebohm Principle

The legal principle established by the ICJ in 1955 requiring a genuine and effective link between an individual and a state for that state's grant of nationality to be recognized internationally.

Lotus Principle

The principle derived from the PCIJ 1927 Lotus Case stating that sovereign states are free to act as they wish unless a specific rule of international law prohibits them from doing so.

Acta Jure Imperii vs. Acta Jure Gestionis

Under restrictive immunity, sovereign or public acts (acta jure imperii) enjoy jurisdictional immunity, whereas commercial or private acts (acta jure gestionis) do not.

Ratione Personae vs. Ratione Materiae Immunity

Ratione personae immunity covers sitting high-level officials for both official and private acts during their term, whereas ratione materiae immunity continues after leaving office but applies only to official acts performed while in office.

Objective Responsibility Theory

The principle in state responsibility where a wrongful act attributable to a state establishes liability without requiring proof of intention or negligence.

International Minimum Standard

The rule establishing that a state must treat foreign nationals in accordance with a basic international standard of fairness, due process, and humane treatment, regardless of how it treats its own citizens.

Erga Omnes Obligations

Legal obligations owed by a state to the international community as a whole, allowing any state to invoke responsibility for their breach (e.g., prohibitions on genocide and slavery).

Inquiry

A diplomatic dispute settlement method where a neutral commission of experts investigates disputed facts and produces an impartial, non-binding report.

Conciliation

A hybrid dispute settlement method where a neutral commission investigates a dispute, determines facts, reviews applicable law, and issues a non-binding settlement proposal.

Provisional Measures

Binding temporary orders issued by the ICJ under Article 41 of its Statute to preserve the rights of the parties pending the final judicial decision.

Caroline Test

The customary international law standard requiring that self-defense be restricted strictly to cases where the necessity is instant, overwhelming, leaving no choice of means, and no moment for deliberation.

Retorsion vs. Countermeasures vs. Reprisals

Retorsion refers to unfriendly but legal retaliatory acts; Countermeasures are non-forcible acts that would otherwise be unlawful taken to induce compliance; Reprisals are forcible retaliatory acts that are strictly illegal under Article 2(4).

Overall Control Test

The standard established in the Tadić Case holding that a non-international armed conflict becomes international if a foreign state exercises overall control over a rebel group by organizing, financing, equipping, or planning its operations.

Common Article 3

A fundamental provision in all four 1949 Geneva Conventions requiring humane treatment without adverse distinction for non-combatants in non-international armed conflicts, prohibiting murder, torture, and cruel treatment.

Non-Derogable Rights

Core human rights, such as the right to life and freedom from torture or slavery, that cannot be suspended, restricted, or limited under any circumstances, even during national emergencies.

Trail Smelter Principle

The customary environmental law rule establishing that no state has the right to use or permit the use of its territory in a manner that causes serious environmental harm to the territory of another state.

Precautionary Principle

Principle 15 of the Rio Declaration stating that when there is a risk of serious or irreversible environmental damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective preventive measures.

Polluter Pays Principle

Principle 16 of the Rio Declaration establishing that the costs of pollution prevention, control, cleanup, and damage restoration should be borne by the party responsible for causing the pollution.