International Law Vocabulary

Flashcards defined directly from the lecture notes on public and private international law concepts, historical treaties, and theoretical approaches.

Pacta Sunt Servanda

Agreements Must Be Kept

Ubi societas, ibi jus

Wherever there is a society, there will be law

Bureaucratic inertia (path dependency)

Diplomats interacting with each other default to interactions that they have done before because they know that it works.

Retorsion

Recalling an ambassador, breaking off diplomatic relations, or other non-illegal actions.

Epiphenomenality

The question of whether international law is merely the effect of state behavior, or if it actually binds.

Private International Law

Regulates individual conduct with a transboundary element, such as international contracts, international marriages, or international traffic accidents.

Public International Law

Regulates relations between states.

Cosmopolitan Outlook

Perspective expecting international law to bring about a better world, for which 'sovereignty' is viewed as a four-letter word.

Cuius regio eius religio

Principle where units could decide for themselves which religion to adopt.

On the Law of War and Peace

Work that established the freedom of the seas.

Natural Law Thinking

Typically suggests that law is not made but found, existing somehow in nature.

Positivism

Concept that law is not given, but man-made.

Terra nullis

Territory that did not belong to anyone when it was not subjected to formal sovereignty.

Papal Bull (Inter Caetera)

Line drawn by the Pope to divide up colonial territories.

Treaty of Tordesillas

Agreement specifying that territory to the west of Brazil belonged to Spain, and territory east of Brazil (including Brazil) belonged to Portugal.

Treaty of Saragossa

Agreement that separated Pacific Ocean territory between Spain and Portugal.

Mare Librum

Work in which Gortius established that the seas were communal.

Positive Morality

Rules that are more or less binding on states as a matter of morality, not as a matter of law.

Inadimplenti non est adimplendum

Principle where if Country A violates a treaty with Country B, Country B will be inclined to do the same.

Self-Proclaimed Realists

Theorists who tend to view international law as largely irrelevant, holding that states will only respect international law if it furthers their own self-interest.

Peace of Westphalia

Treaty marking the end of the 30 Years War (1648), representing the birth of the modern state system.

Criminal Law

The only branch of law that deals with individuals rather than states.

Liberal Institutionalist

Perspective holding that international law can be of relevance, at least if properly designed to take states' lust for power into account.

Law and Economics Approach

Approach presuming that states are rational actors operating with profit maximization as their main goal.

Constructivist Approach

Approach holding that international law is not just about prohibiting things, but also about facilitating behavior; it has the strongest alliance with international law.

Global Governance

The exercise of authority, on the global level, outside regular legal structures.

Jus cogens

Concept establishing that some activities are ethically wrong.

Principle of Formal Equality

Principle that the international system comprises equal and sovereign states, where two sovereigns are equal regardless of their territories' size.