SELECCIÓN DE TEXTOS.

Este trabajo de compilación contiene los

textos que se utilizarán para el dictado de
la materia. Los textos ilustran los distintos
ejes temáticos abordados para la
enseñanza de las técnicas de comprensión
lectora en lengua extranjera

LECTOCOMPRENSIÓN
– INGLÉS
MATERIAL DIDÁCTICO
ALUMNOS
UNIDAD 13

DEPARTAMENTO DE IDIOMAS
 UNIDAD 13:

DERECHO INTERNACIONAL
PÚBLICO

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 ÍNDICE DE CONTENIDOS

Texto.1: Researching Public International Law. Definitions

Texto 2: The International Court of Justice (ICJ)
Texto 3: Principles of International Law Recognized in the UN
Charter- Nüremberg

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Tex to 1: -Resear ch ing Public International Law -Definitions
Source:www.library.law.columbia.edu

Public International Law - (Introduction)

Definitions of International Law Columbia University-Law School

Public International Law is the law of the political system of nation-states. It is a distinct and
self-contained system of law, independent of the national systems with which it interacts, and
dealing with relations which they do not effectively govern. Since there is no overall legislature
or law-creating body in the international political system, the rules, principles, and processes of
international law must be identified through a variety of sources and mechanisms. This can
make international law appear difficult to pin down. Students and scholars in the United States
often use the Restatement of the Law (Third), the Foreign Relations of the United States as a
guide to identifying international law as applied in the US.

ALI Restatement 3rd, Section 101, International Law Defined:

"International law, as used in this Restatement, consists of rules and

principles of general application dealing with the conduct of states and
of international organizations and with their relations inter se, as well
as with some of their relations with persons, whether natural or
juridical."

From the Oxford English Dictionary:

"[I]nternational law, the law of nations, under which nations are

regarded as individual members of a common polity, bound by a
common rule of agreement or custom; opposed to municipal law , the
rules binding in local jurisdictions."

Institutions Involved in the Process

As international law developed in the 17th and 18th centuries, it was widely understood that it
was a tool for relations between nation-states. Individuals had no role in the process which
resolved disputes between states except as representatives of the states, such as diplomats or
naval officers. The classic ‘player’ is the sovereign body of the nation in whatever form it takes
for a given state. It can be the President, Prime Minister, King, or Queen, but it is now often the
bureaucratic representation of the sovereign power, such as the State Department, the Foreign
Ministry, the military, etc. Until the middle of the 20th Century, international law consisted
primarily of custom. More recently, customary international law has been increasingly codified.

While that part of the governmental entity charged with foreign relations will have the lead role
in developing international law for the country, in practice each subunit of a government has
some ability to create what can be recognized as International Law. In the United States, for
example, the Executive Branch (acting through the State Department) may sign a treaty, but the
President ratifies it with the "advice and consent" of the Senate, and the Congress as a whole
may pass laws implementing it. In addition, administrative agencies can make and enforce
regulations implementing the treaty and the statutes, and the courts can interpret any of the
above and use non-treaty related international law as an exercise of their judicial power.
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On the global scale, international organizations such as the United Nations and the European
Union have become extremely important as forums for creating international law. The most
recent development in this area has been the recognition that there is a role, within the sphere of
public international law, for individuals to pursue remedies against sovereign nations.

Identification of Authoritative Texts

The Charter of the United Nations establishes the International Court of Justice (ICJ) as the
principal judicial organ of the UN. The treaty which establishes the ICJ is informally known as
the “Statute” . Article 38 of this "Statute" furnishes an indirect answer to the question: What are
the texts of international law? The article is written in terms of what sources the court will use in
order to resolve a dispute. These sources include treaties, customary law, case law, academic
writings, and general principles of law. Article 38 reads:

"1. The Court, whose function is to decide in accordance with

international law such disputes as are submitted to it, shall apply:

a. international conventions, whether general or particular, establishing

rules expressly recognized by the contesting states;
b. international custom, as evidence of a general practice accepted as
law;
c. the general principles of law recognized by civilized nations;
d. subject to the provisions of Article 59, judicial decisions and the
teachings of the most highly qualified publicists of the various nations,
as subsidiary means for the determination of rules of law.

2. This provision shall not prejudice the power of the Court to decide a
case ex aequo et bono , if the parties agree thereto."

A different presentation of these ideas can be found in the Restatement of the Law 3d: Foreign
Relations Law of the United States , Articles 102 (Sources of International Law) and 103
(Evidence of International Law).

§ 102 Sources of International Law

(1) A rule of international law is one that has been accepted as such by
the international community of states
(a) in the form of customary law;
(b) by international agreement; or
(c) by derivation from general principles common to the major legal
systems of the world.

(2) Customary international law results from a general and consistent

practice of states followed by them from a sense of legal obligation.

(3) International agreements create law for the states parties thereto
and may lead to the creation of customary international law when such
agreements are intended for adherence by states generally and are in
fact widely accepted.

(4) General principles common to the major legal systems, even if not

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 incorporated or reflected in customary law or international agreement,
may be invoked as supplementary rules of international law where
appropriate.

§ 103 Evidence of International Law

(1) Whether a rule has become international law is determined by

evidence appropriate to the particular source from which that rule is
alleged to derive (§ 102).

(2) In determining whether a rule has become international law,

substantial weight is accorded to
(a) judgments and opinions of international judicial and arbitral
tribunals;
(b) judgments and opinions of national judicial tribunals;
(c) the writings of scholars;
(d) pronouncements by states that undertake to state a rule of
international law, when such pronouncements are not seriously
challenged by other states.

Since the adoption of the ICJ statute in 1946, the post World War II growth of a wide variety of
Inter-Governmental Organizations (IGOs) has injected the work product of these IGOs into the
mix as well.

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Texto 2: The International Court of Justice (ICJ)
Fuente:www.icj-cij.org

INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE (ICJ)

1. What is the International Court of Justice?

The Court is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. It was established by the United
Nations Charter, signed in 1945 at San Francisco (United States), and began work in 1946 in the
Peace Palace, The Hague (Netherlands).
The Court, which is composed of 15 judges, has a dual role: in accordance with international law,
settling legal disputes between States submitted to it by them and giving advisory opinions on
legal matters referred to it by duly authorized United Nations organs and specialized agencies.
The official languages of the Court are English and French.

2. Who may submit cases to the Court?

Only States are eligible to appear before the Court in contentious cases. At present, this basically
means the 192 United Nations Member States.
The Court has no jurisdiction to deal with applications from individuals, non-governmental
organizations, corporations or any other private entity. It cannot provide them with legal
counselling or help them in their dealings with the authorities of any State whatever.
However, a State may take up the case of one of its nationals and invoke against another State the
wrongs which its national claims to have suffered at the hands of the latter; the dispute then
becomes one between States.

3. What differentiates the International Court of Justice from the International

Criminal Court and the ad hoc international criminal tribunals?
The International Court of Justice has no jurisdiction to try individuals accused of war crimes or
crimes against humanity. As it is not a criminal court, it does not have a prosecutor able to initiate
proceedings.
This task is the preserve of national courts, the ad hoc criminal tribunals established by the United
Nations (such as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)) or in co-operation with it (such as the Special
Court for Sierra Leone), and also of the International Criminal Court, set up under the Rome
Statute.

4. How does the International Court of Justice differ from other international
courts?
The International Court of Justice differs from the European Court of Justice (the seat of which is
in Luxembourg), whose role is to interpret European Community legislation uniformly and rule on
its validity, as well as from the European Court of Human Rights (in Strasbourg, France) and the
Inter-American Court of Human Rights (in San José, Costa Rica), which deal with allegations of
violations of the human rights conventions under which they were set up. As well as applications
from States, those three courts can entertain applications from individuals, which is not possible
for the International Court of Justice.

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The jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice is general and thereby differs from that of
specialist international tribunals, such as the International Tribunal for the Law of the
Sea (ITLOS).
Lastly, the Court is not a supreme court to which national courts can turn; it does not act as a
court of last resort for individuals. Nor is it an appeal court for any international tribunal. It can,
however, rule on the validity of arbitral awards.

5. Why are some disputes between States not considered by the Court?
The Court can only hear a dispute when requested to do so by one or more States. It cannot deal
with a dispute of its own motion. It is not permitted, under its Statute, to investigate and rule on
acts of sovereign States as it chooses.
The States concerned must also have access to the Court and have accepted its jurisdiction, in
other words they must consent to the Court"s considering the dispute in question. This is a
fundamental principle governing the settlement of international disputes, States being sovereign
and free to choose the methods of resolving their disputes.
A State may manifest its consent in three ways:
- A special agreement: two or more States in a dispute on a specific issue may agree to submit it
jointly to the Court and conclude an agreement for this purpose;
- A clause in a treaty: over 300 treaties contain clauses (known as compromissory clauses) by
which a State party undertakes in advance to accept the jurisdiction of the Court should a dispute
arise on the interpretation or application of the treaty with another State party;
- A unilateral declaration: the States parties to the Statute of the Court may opt to make a
unilateral declaration recognizing the jurisdiction of the Court as binding with respect to any other
State also accepting it as binding. This optional clause system, as it is called, has led to the creation
of a group of States each having given the Court jurisdiction to settle any dispute that might arise
between them in future. In principle, any State in this group is entitled to bring one or more other
States in the group before the Court. Declarations may contain reservations limiting their duration
or excluding certain categories of dispute. They are deposited by States with the Secretary-General
of the United Nations.

6. Are decisions of the Court binding?

Judgments delivered by the Court (or by one of its Chambers) in disputes between States are
binding upon the parties concerned. Article 94 of the United Nations Charter lays down that "each
Member of the United Nations undertakes to comply with the decision of [the Court] in any case
to which it is a party".
Judgments are final and without appeal. If either of the parties challenges their scope or meaning,
it has the option to request an interpretation. In the event of the discovery of a fact hitherto
unknown to the Court which might be a decisive factor, either party may apply for revision of the
judgment.
As regards advisory opinions, it is usually for the United Nations organs and specialized agencies
requesting them to give effect to them or not by whatever means are appropriate for them.
(. . .)

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Texto 3: -Principles of International Law Recognized in th e UN
Char ter _ N ürem be rg ..
Fuente: www.legal.un.org/ola

Principles of International Law Recognized in the Charter of the

Nüremberg Tribunal and in the Judgment of the Tribunal
1950

Text adopted by the International Law Commission at its second session, in 1950
and submitted to the General Assembly as a part of the Commission’s report
covering the work of that session. The report, which also contains commentaries on
the principles, appears in Yearbook of the International Law Commission, 1950, vol. II,
para. 97.

Copyright © United
Nations 2005

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 Principles of International Law Recognized in the Charter of the Nüremberg Tribunal and in
the Judgment of the Tribunal

Principle I

Any person who commits an act which constitutes a crime under

international law is responsible therefor and liable to punishment.
Principle II

The fact that internal law does not impose a penalty for an act which
constitutes a crime under international law does not relieve the person who
committed the act from responsibility under international law.
Principle III

The fact that a person who committed an act which constitutes a crime
under international law acted as Head of State or responsible Government
official does not relieve him from responsibility under international law.
Principle IV

The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of

a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law,
provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him.
Principle V
Any person charged with a crime under international law has the right to a
fair trial on the facts and law.

Principle VI

The crimes hereinafter set out are punishable as crimes under international
law:
(a) Crimes against peace:
(i) Planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression
or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances;
(ii) Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the
accomplishment of any of the acts mentioned under (i).
(b) War crimes:
Violations of the laws or customs of war which include, but are not
limited to, murder, ill- treatment or deportation to slave-labour or for
any other purpose of civilian population of or in occupied territory,
murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war, of persons on the seas, killing
of hostages, plunder of public or private property, wanton destruction of
cities, towns, or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity.
(c) Crimes against humanity:
Murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation and other inhuman acts
done against any civilian population, or persecutions on political,

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 racial or religious grounds, when such acts aredone or such persecutions
are carried on in execution of or in connection with any crime against peace
or any war crime.
Principle VII

Complicity in the commission of a crime against peace, a war crime,

or a crime against humanity as set forth in Principle VI is a crime under
international law.

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