Professional Documents
Culture Documents
A customary law to be established needs to have opinio juris in the practice of states.1 To
understand if state practice amounts to custom it is vital to determine whether it was a legal
obligation or a mere social usage.2 If a particular practice is done without any consciousness of a
legal duty to do so, the practice will not be binding on the state.3
This sub-section embodies the principle of non-refoulement which this Court, in the Haitian and Haitian-
Origin Dominican Persons Case, recognized as a principle of customary law and jus cogens character.7
1
Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, supra note 2, at 226, 253; Continental Shelf case (Libyan Arab
Jamahiriya v. Malta), 1985 I.C.J 13, ¶ 27, 29-30 (June 3); JONATHAN I. CHARNEY, CUSTOMARY INTERNATIONAL LAW IN THE
NICARAGUA CASE JUDGEMENT ON MERITS: HAGUE YEARBOOK OF INTERNATIONAL LAW 22 (1988); J. CRIAG BARKER, INTERNATIONAL
LAW AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 61 (2000); G. I. TUNKIN, THE CONTEMPORARY SOVIET THEORY OF INTERNATIONAL LAW 177
(1978); MALCOM N. SHAW, supra note 4, at 34; SEAN D. MURPHY, UNITED STATES PRACTICE IN INTERNATIONAL LAW: 1999-
2001 386 (2002).
2
MALCOM N. SHAW, supra note 4, at 78; H.W BRIGGS, THE LAW OF NATIONS 93 (2nd ed., 1952).
3
FISCHER WILLIAMS, SOME ASPECTS OF MODERN INTERNATIONAL LAW 312 (1934); ANTHONY D’AMATO, THE CONCEPT OF CUSTOM
IN INTERNATIONAL LAW 47-55, 66-73 (1971).
4
Ayusgi, Advantages of Industrialization: Revision Notes on December 6, 2011
5
Industrialization, urbanization and Immigration: U.S. History, ch. 12, s. 2: Industrial Revolution
6
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Art. 23(1)
7
Matter of Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian-origin in the Dominican Republic regarding Dominican Republic,
Inter-Am Ct. H. R. Provisional Measure, (May 26, 2001).