Public International Law Finals Review (JD 306)

Essential legal vocabulary, doctrines, maxims, and terminology for Public International Law based on Chapters 1 through 10 and the Regime Selector of Public International Law Simplified.

Par in parem non habet imperium

An equal has no power over an equal, serving as the legal maxim and foundational basis for state immunity.

Jure imperii

Sovereign or governmental acts of a foreign State for which it enjoys absolute immunity from suit in municipal courts.

Jure gestionis

Commercial or proprietary acts performed by a foreign State for which it may be sued in local courts.

Lantion ladder

The judicial hierarchy of laws where customary international law and municipal statutes stand on equal footing and must be harmonized; if irreconcilable, municipal law prevails in domestic courts, while the Constitution prevails over both.

Diplomatic protection

A State's discretionary right, rather than a duty, to espouse the claims of its injured nationals against another State, governed by foreign relations as a political question.

Res communis

Things common to all that are outside the commerce of man and not susceptible to national appropriation, such as the high seas and celestial bodies.

Angary (jus angariae)

The right of a belligerent State in times of urgent necessity to seize, destroy, or use neutral property found in its own territory or ports, subject to just compensation.

Caroline test

The legal standard for anticipatory self-defense requiring that the necessity of self-defense be instant, overwhelming, leaving no choice of means, and no moment for deliberation.

Ius inter gentes

The law between peoples or nations, corresponding to the modern definition and scope of public international law.

Opinio juris sive necessitatis

The belief that an action is carried out by States not out of habit, convenience, or political expediency, but from a binding sense of legal obligation.

Doctrine of Incorporation

The rule whereby a State automatically adopts international law rules as part of the law of the land without requiring domestic legislative action, as expressed in Article II, Section 2 of the 1987 Philippine Constitution.

Doctrine of Transformation

The principle that international law rules become part of domestic law only when expressly enacted into a municipal statute by the legislature.

Lex posterior derogat priori

The interpretive rule establishing that a later enacted law supersedes or repeals an earlier conflicting law.

Lex specialis derogat generali

The interpretive canon establishing that a specific rule or statute overrides a general one on the same subject.

Concordat

A formal international treaty or agreement concluded between the Holy See and a sovereign State concerning religious and ecclesiastical matters.

Act of State Doctrine

The judicial principle that every sovereign State respects the independence of every other State, preventing municipal courts from sitting in judgment on the public acts of a foreign government done within its own territory.

Declaratory theory of recognition

The majority doctrine providing that recognition merely acknowledges an existing fact of statehood without constituting the international legal personality of the recognized entity.

Constitutive theory of recognition

The minority doctrine providing that the act of recognition by other States creates or confers international legal personality upon a new State.

Inchoate title of discovery

An incomplete, imperfect territorial title gained through discovery of terra nullius without administrative occupation, acting as a temporary bar that expires if effective possession is not established within a reasonable time.

Doctrine of effective occupation

The principle that acquiring title over newly discovered terra nullius requires the discovering State to exercise actual possession and set up an organization or administration capable of enforcing laws.

Stimson Doctrine

The international policy of refusing to recognize territorial changes, treaties, or situations brought about through the threat or unlawful use of armed force.

Sector Principle

A method of apportioning sovereignty over polar regions by drawing arbitrary sectors radiating from territorial baselines to an apex at the poles.

Archipelago Doctrine

The principle of connecting the outermost points of the outermost islands with straight baselines, treating all waters enclosed within as internal or archipelagic waters forming a single territorial unit.

Thalweg Doctrine

The rule specifying that in the absence of an agreement, the international boundary in a navigable river follows the middle line of the deepest or main navigable channel.

Innocent passage

Continuous and expeditious navigation through a coastal State's territorial sea that does not compromise its peace, good order, or national security.

Transit passage

The freedom of continuous and expeditious navigation and overflight exercised through straits used for international navigation between two parts of the high seas or EEZ.

Contiguous zone

A maritime zone extending up to 24 nautical miles from baselines where the coastal State exercises control to enforce and penalize violations of its customs, fiscal, immigration, and sanitary (CFIS) regulations.

Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)

A maritime belt extending up to 200 nautical miles from baselines wherein the coastal State exercises sovereign rights to explore, exploit, conserve, and manage living and non-living natural resources.

Continental shelf

The natural prolongation of a coastal State's landmass to the outer edge of the continental margin, extending to 200 nautical miles or up to a maximum of 350 nautical miles (or 100 nautical miles beyond the 2,500-meter isobath).

Hot pursuit

The right of a coastal State's authorities to pursue and arrest an offending foreign merchant ship on the high seas, provided pursuit began inside its territorial waters or contiguous zone and remained continuous and unabated.

Flag of convenience

The commercial registration of a maritime vessel in a foreign State whose open registry allows shipowners to reduce operating costs and bypass stringent municipal labor or safety laws.

Regime of islands

The legal classification under UNCLOS Article 121 where natural high-tide features generate full maritime zones, but rocks that cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own generate no EEZ or continental shelf.

Wilson / Tobar Doctrine

The doctrine refusing recognition to foreign governments that attained power via revolution or coup d'état until confirmed by popular elections through constitutional mechanisms.

Estrada Doctrine

The foreign policy policy of withholding formal declarations of recognition for new governments, choosing instead to quietly maintain or withdraw diplomatic representatives based on effective territorial control.

Uti possidetis juris

The principle that newly independent sovereign States inherit and preserve the administrative boundaries that existed at the time of their independence from colonial rule.

Ex injuria jus non oritur

The fundamental legal maxim providing that illegal or wrongful acts cannot give rise to lawful rights.

Persona non grata

A formal notice by a receiving State declaring a diplomatic agent or mission member unacceptable, requiring their recall without needing to provide any justification.

Agrément

The formal diplomatic consent or assent granted by a receiving State to a foreign government's proposed diplomatic head of mission before their appointment.

Letter of credence

The formal document by which a sending State's head of state accredits its diplomatic envoy to the receiving State's government.

Exequatur

The formal written authorization issued by a receiving State permitting a foreign consul to enter upon the performance of their consular functions.

Pacta sunt servanda

The core rule of international treaty law stating that every treaty in force is binding upon the parties and must be performed in good faith.

Rebus sic stantibus

The doctrine permitting a State to terminate or withdraw from a treaty because of an unforeseen, fundamental change of circumstances that constituted an essential basis of the original consent to be bound.

Jus cogens

A peremptory, non-derogable norm of general international law accepted by the international community as a whole, voiding any conflicting treaty or state action.

Pacta tertiis nec nocent nec prosunt

The rule that treaties create neither binding legal obligations nor rights for third States without their explicit consent.

Modus vivendi

A temporary or provisional agreement between States intended to regulate mutual affairs pending the negotiation of a formal and permanent settlement.

Non-refoulement

The fundamental principle prohibiting the expulsion, return, or extradition of a refugee to a country where their life or freedom faces serious persecution.

Rule of specialty

An extradition principle stating that an extradited individual can only be prosecuted, tried, or punished for the specific offense for which extradition was expressly granted.

Aut dedere aut judicare

The international legal obligation requiring a custodial State to either extradite a criminal suspect to a requesting State or prosecute them before its own courts.

Compromis

A formal special agreement by which contending States define the subject of a dispute and agree to submit it to binding arbitration or to the International Court of Justice.

Retorsion

A lawful but retaliatory and unfriendly act committed by an injured State in response to an unfriendly or injurious act by another State.

Reprisal

An otherwise illegal coercive act undertaken by an injured State to answer an unlawful act previously committed against it by another State, aimed at securing redress.

Mercenary (AP I Art. 47)

A fighter recruited specifically to take part in hostilities primarily for private gain, receiving compensation substantially in excess of regular armed forces, who is neither a national nor resident of a party to the conflict and has no right to combatant or POW status.

Spy (Hague Regs Art. 29)

An individual who clandestinely or under false pretenses collects or attempts to collect information in a belligerent's zone of operations with the intent to communicate it to the hostile party.

Complementarity (ICC)

The operational principle where the International Criminal Court assumes jurisdiction only when domestic courts are genuinely unwilling or unable to investigate or prosecute international crimes.

Jus ad bellum

The body of public international law establishing the criteria and conditions under which a State may lawfully resort to war or armed force.

Jus in bello

The rules of international humanitarian law governing the conduct of belligerents and the methods of warfare during an armed conflict, applicable equally to all parties.

Hors de combat

The status of persons who are no longer participating in combat due to sickness, wounds, detention, shipwreck, or surrender, entitling them to absolute protection under international humanitarian law.

Nullum crimen sine lege

The principle of legality asserting that no person may be criminally punished without a preexisting, clear legal statute defining the act as a crime.

Doctrine of ultimate destination

The maritime rule permitting the capture of contraband being transported to a neutral port if its ultimate and final destination is an enemy belligerent.

Doctrine of ultimate consumption

The prize law principle authorizing the capture of conditional contraband if it is proven to be destined for the use and consumption of the enemy's armed forces or administration.

Unneutral service

Direct acts of military or non-commercial assistance rendered by a neutral vessel or national to a belligerent State that strip the vessel of its neutral immunity and expose it to capture.

Prize court

A domestic judicial tribunal convened by a belligerent State to decide the legality of maritime captures and property seized by its armed forces during war.