Public International Law Final Term Course

Nacta

● Nacta, is a Pakistani internal security organization responsible for making counter terrorism and
counter extremism policies and strategies.

● It also develops action plans against terrorism and extremism and reviews their implementation.

● It formulates threat assessments with periodic reviews.

● It advises the Federal Government on making adequate and timely efforts to counter terrorism
and extremism.

● Its motto is:" Stand United against terrorism."

● It was formed in 2009.

Doctrine of Contraband

● During war, transportation of certain goods such as ammunition, fuel etc to the enemy state is
declared prohibited by a belligerent because they assist the enemy state in the operation of war.

● With passage of time, when International law got developed, another category of contraband
came into existence which is conditional contraband.

● The law of contraband had no material development for a hundred years past.

● Grotius classified contraband into two categories which are the following:

Absolute contraband discussed in Article 22 and Article 23 of the London Declaration.

● Absolute contraband is a kind of contraband which will be subject to search and seizure as it is.

Conditional contraband:
 ● Conditional contraband means those goods which can be used both in war and peace as it is
difficult to differentiate it so it is subject to seizure.

● Example: Food, clothing, gold, fuel, rolling stock etc.

Not subject to capture

● The third class listed goods are not subject to capture as these goods are only used in peace and
not in war.

● Example: Colors, embroidery, fashion designing goods etc.

Doctrine of Hot Pursuit

● The word hot pursuit means following closely and eagerly.

● According to Article 111 of UNCLOS, the hot pursuit of a foreign ship may be undertaken when
the competent authorities of the coastal state have good reason to believe that the ship has
violated the laws of that state.

● Such pursuit must be commenced when the foreign ship or one of its boats is within internal
waters or territorial waters of the pursuing state.

● The right of hot pursuit ceases as soon as the ship pursued enters the territorial sea of its own state
or of a third state.

Yugoslavia War

● Yugoslavia Conflict broke out in 1991 because the largest ethnic group, the Serbs, began to fight
against the smaller ethnic groups, who wanted to be free.

● The president of Serbia, Slobodan Milošević (pronounced mee-LOW-say-vich), promised that

non-Serbs would be removed from the country.

● This began a campaign to kill or eliminate the smaller ethnic groups, which is called ethnic
cleansing.

● This resulted in many deaths, which made the rest of the world sit up and pay attention.
 ● The United Nations sent peacekeepers to try to limit the fighting, but the fighters just moved
around instead.

● Some one million people had to leave their homes because of fighting and ethnic cleansing.

● As a result of Slovodan's policy of ethnic cleansing, he was tried for war crimes in 2002, but he
died before his punishment could be carried out.

The Vietnam War

● Vietnam had many troubles before the Vietnam War.

● In the early 1900s the country was part of a French colony.

● Japan seized the colony in 1940 and held it until 1945.

● Then a Vietnamese group called the Viet Minh declared Vietnam’s independence.

● But the French still wanted to rule Vietnam as a colony.

● The two sides fought an eight-year war, called the French Indochina War.

● The Viet Minh defeated the French in 1954.

● The Vietnam War was a long conflict in Southeast Asia.

● It began in 1954, after the country of Vietnam was split into two parts, North Vietnam and South
Vietnam.

● North Vietnam wanted to reunite the country under Communism, its political and economic
system.

● South Vietnam fought to keep this from happening.

● The United States helped South Vietnam, but North Vietnam won the war in 1975.

● Soon Vietnam was a united, Communist country.

● The Vietnam War had a huge cost in human lives.

● More than 1.3 million Vietnamese soldiers and about 58,000 U.S. troops were killed.
 ● More than 2 million civilians (People not fighting the war) also died.

The Rwandan Genocide

● The Rwandan genocide occurred between 7 April and 15 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil
War.

● Rwanda is a small country nearly five times smaller than New York state with a population of 7
million estimated in 1994.

● It was colonized by Germany and Belgium and then gained independence in 1952.

● 85 % was from the Hutu ethnic group.

● 14% was tutsi and 1% Twa.

● Hutu and tutsi are distinctly different ethnic groups but they have a lot in common.

● They speak the same language, live in the same areas and adhere to similar traditions.

● The disagreement between these two ethnic groups have started since the colonial period.

● When Belgian colonists arrived in 1916, they radicalized the two ethnic groups.

● They classified people according to stereotypical physical features.

● The Belgians favored Tutsis over Hutus and considered them superior to the Hutus, guaranteeing
them better jobs and educational opportunities.

● This discrimination led to resentment between these two ethnic groups.

● On 7th April, 1994, Government backed mass killings started in Rwanda.

● Hutu extremists massacred hundreds and thousands of ethnic Tutsis.

● Within a span of hundred days, at least 800000 people were killed in the most rapid genocide
ever recorded.

● Women were raped and even the lives of the children were not spared.
Judicial decisions as a source of international law

● Judicial decisions are used for the interpretation, application and development of law.

● It is considered as a secondary source of law.

● Juristic writings represent teachings of highly qualified publicists.

● There is no rule of stare decisis in international law.

● The decision of the Court has no binding force except between the parties and in respect of that
particular case.

● Nevertheless, often the Court would refer to its past decisions and advisory opinions to support its
explanation of a present case.

Decisions of International organizations

The United Nations (UN) has the following six main organs:

● The General Assembly.

● The Security Council.

● The Economic and Social Council.

● The Trusteeship Council and the Secretariat.

● The International Court of Justice is located at The Hague in the Netherlands.

● Decisions of UNO organizations such as World Health Organizations, the IMF, Security Council
are also a source of international law.

● Examples:

● Rules and regulations, protocols and guidelines formulated by WHO in regards to Covid 19.

● The Security Council can authorize the use of force if there is a threat to or a breach of
international peace and security or an act of aggression.

● The World Bank, which provides aid to promote economic development.

 ● The International Monetary Fund, which helps countries manage their balance-of-payments
problems.

● The WTO, which supervises and regulates international trade.

Fisheries Case

(United Kingdom v. Norway)

● This case throws light on the right of prescription.

● This case is also known as the fisheries case.

● It is explained in this case that a country cannot be deprived of its rights of prescription after it is
used for its long period continuously without any interruption which in this case was 60 years by
Norway.

● Norway used to use their own way to exercise exclusive rights for fisheries and make a baseline
from ports and bays.

● The UK said that this is not right and Norway does not follow the international law in drawing
baseline.

● The matter was taken to the ICJ.

● The court referred to the lack of objection of other states on this practice.

● The Court rendered in favor of Norway on 18th December, 1951 by saying that the delimit action
of the fisheries zone was not contrary to the International Law.

● The fisheries zone was seen from 48 selected places of the land, islands and sea hills in the direct
base line, hence the matter was decided in favor of Norway.

● By 8 against 4 votes, the court also held that the baseline fixed by this decree in application is not
contrary to the International Law.

Arbitration

● Arbitration is a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR).

 ● Arbitration is a pacific means of settlement of disputes between States in the International
scenario and is binding between the parties to which the arbitration proceedings apply.

Freedom to Choose a neutral and competent decision maker

● One of the most valued features of international arbitration is that the parties have the freedom to
choose a neutral competent decision maker which they consider impartial, competent and
independent in the subject matter.

Speed

● Several features of international arbitration is that it favors speedy proceedings as it ends with a
final reward.

● However, international arbitrations have, despite these features, become increasingly lengthy, for
a variety of reasons.

Cost

● International arbitration has grown more and more complex and, accordingly, expensive.

Absence of Appeal

● International arbitral awards are final as there is no concept of appeal.

Domestic cases as a source of international law

● The Distomo cases, the Urgenda Foundation v The Netherlands case, the Alien Tort Statute cases,
and the Israeli targeted killings cases are among the most fascinating domestic cases on
international law.

● In practice, a vast amount of international law is actually implemented and interpreted by

domestic courts.
 ● These courts are increasingly engaged with international law across diverse areas, such as
statehood, immunities, human rights and humanitarian law, environmental issues, refugee law,
and the use of force and non-intervention.

● Domestic court decisions from the world’s richest states, including the United Kingdom and
United States, are relatively easy to find but judgments from developing countries are often
difficult to uncover and put into context.

● The result is that contributions by developing country courts are often overlooked in international
law research.

General principles of law

● General principles of law may contain laws from many sources like Natural law doctrines, rules
common to all legal systems and principles of equity.

● General principles of law are used primarily as "gap fillers" when treaties or customary
international law do not provide a rule of decision.

● They differ from customary international law in that they are derived from the "national laws of
legal systems of the world.

● "Article 38 (1) of the Tribunal Statutes states that “General Principles of Law recognized by
many Civilized Countries” is the source of International Law.

● Article 38(1)(c) of the Statute of the International Court of Justice provides that one of the
sources of international law is the general principles of law.

● It helps Judges to further develop International legal content.

● Example of general principles of law: laches, good faith, res judicata, and the impartiality of
judges.

Tribunals as a source of international law

● Tribunal is a body established to settle certain types of disputes.

● International tribunals use these principles when they cannot find authority in other sources.
 ● International tribunals have been convened over the years by compromise between parties to
resolve disputes concerning particular questions of international law such as international
boundaries, etc.

Relationship between International law and Municipal law

● International Law rules conduct between states.

● In other words, International Law is a set of rules that apply when States interact.

● Municipal law is the national, domestic, or internal law of a sovereign state.

● International law and Municipal are interconnected which can be shown in the following
examples:

● Nationality is an international law concept but to acquire nationality, the means of Municipal law
is used which is Pakistan Citizenship Act 1951.

● Extradition is a concept of International law but the means of Municipal law is used which is
Extradition Act 1972.

Theory of Dualism

● Theory of Dualism was developed by Lauterpacht and Triepel.

● Dualism states that International law and Municipal law are different laws having different legal
systems and working in different orbits therefore they subjects are not related to each other.

● The reason is that they have different sources of law.

● Their subjects are different as they apply to states whereas Municipal law applies to individuals.

● Even the principals are different as international law and municipal Law have different trial court
systems.

● A trial court is a court where facts are determined on the basis of evidence.

● In United Kingdom, the dualist view is predominant.

Theory of Monoism

● Basically, ‘Monistic’ means the unity of the legal systems.

● This theory was developed in the 19th century by Wright, Kelsen and Dugui.

● Dualism has been widely criticized.

● Monostic theory states that International law and Municipal law are the same laws.

● It says that both of the laws have its origin form morality.

● It says that Internaional law directly applies on human beings such as Human Rights.

● In terms of principles, it says that the principles of Municipal laws apply to International law as
the International Court of Justice has also adopted many principles of Municipal laws.

● If people make certain mistakes, they can be punished in accordance with International Law eg:
War Crimes.

● In short, the monoistic approach says that International law and Municipal law are the same thing.

● Monism is further divided into two sub theories which are Kelsen's grundnorm theory and
Delegation theory.

Adolf Eichmann Case

● Otto Adolf Eichman was a German lieutenant Colonel and was the major architect of the
Holocaust.

● For much of the war, Eichmann’s main role was to organize the logistics of the deportation of
Jews.

● During the Holocaust, he played a central role in the implementation of the “Final Solution.”

● After World War II, Eichmann was arrested by American authorities and held in detention camps
for SS members.

● However, he succeeded in evading suspicion by using fictitious identity papers.

 ● In may 1960, Mossad seized Eichman in Argentina and took him to Juarselam for trial in Israeli
court.

● The Eichmann Trial was held before a special tribunal of the Jerusalem District Court.

● It began on April 11, 1961.

● Israeli attorney general Gideon Hausner signed a bill of indictment against Eichmann on 15
counts, including crimes against the Jewish people and crimes against humanity.

● While considering the sentence, the judges concluded that Eichman had not merely being
following order but believed on the Nazi cause wholeheartedly and had been a key preparator in
the Genocide.

● On December 12, 1961, he was found guilty of several of the charges asserted in the original
indictment, and on December 15 sentenced to death.

● On June 1, 1962, Eichmann was executed by hanging.

● His body was cremated and the ashes were spread at sea, beyond Israel's territorial waters.

● The execution of Adolf Eichmann remains the only time that Israel has enacted a death sentence.

Island of Palmas case

● The Island of Palmas is an Island which is located between Indonesia and Philippines.

● Us claimed sovereignty over the Island in 1906.

● In 1898, Spain ceded the Philippines to the US in the treaty of Paris.

● In 1906, USA discovered that the Netherlands had also claimed sovereignty over the island and
the two parties agreed to submit binding arbitration to the Permanent Council of Arbitration and
signed an agreement to that effect in January 1925.

● The case was mediated by Max Huber who was a Swiss lawyer.

● The US based their claim on the first place of discovery.

● Another claim was filed on the principle of contiguity which means the relative distance of the
Island to each territory of the US, 100 miles of to Philippines compared to 400 miles of
Indonesia.
 ● The Netherlands claimed that they signed official documents that established Dutch sovereignty
over the island with the East India Company dates as far back as 1648.

● Also treaties were made with the local princes in the 17th century, further indicating their
definitive title.

Issue

● Can an inchoate title prevail over a definite title ?

● The answer is no.

Judgment

● It was held that US's claims were illegitimate.

● Spain did not have a definite title.

● The Netherlands had provided sufficient evidence.

● Therefore Island of Palmas is Dutch territory as of April 4th 1928.

China Tibet conflict

● The China-Tibet conflict is now in its eighth decade and the historical relationship between the
two is at the core at the conflict.

● While Tibetans say theirs was an independent society and they were never part of China, the
Chinese say Tibet had always been a part of China.

● The representatives of China and Tibet signed the 17-Point Agreement in 1951, under which
China pledged to keep Tibet’s traditional government and religion in place.

● This was after China had invaded Tibet in 1949-50, defeated its army, and established control
over large parts of Tibetan territories.

● There is a controversy over the 17-Point Agreement.

 ● The complete name of the agreement was the Agreement on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation
of Tibet.

● It was signed in after the Chinese invaded Tibet and occupied its eastern and northern parts and
threatened advancing further.

● Though the Chinese claim the agreement was mutual and cordial, and though the Tibetans at the
time signed it, the Tibetan government-in-exile later claimed that it was signed under duress.

Siachen Conflict

● Siachen Glacier lies in Northern Ladakh in the Karakorams, a mountain range originating from
the Pamirs.

● The total area of Siachen Glacier is approximately 78 km.

● Siachen is the 5th largest glacier of the Karakoram Range and second largest glacier in the world.

About the Siachen controversy

● The average elevation of Siachen Glacier from sea level is approximately 17770 feet.

● Most of the Siachen Glacier is the LoC, a disputed territory between India and Pakistan.

● The area of "Aksai Chin" is also located in this area.

● In the Shimla Agreement of 1972, the Siachen area was termed as barren and useless.

● But this agreement did not determine the boundary between India and Pakistan.

● India got intelligence in 1984 that Pakistan has ordered to prepare some “hot suit” to a European
company to capture the area of Siachen Glacier.

● But before the consignment of Pakistan suits took place, India got ready these “hot suits” and
deployed its troops on “Bilafond La Pass”.

● India launched Operation Meghdoot (named after the divine cloud messenger in a Sanskrit play
of Kalidasa) on 13 April 1984 when the “Kumaon Regiment” of the Indian Army and the “Indian
Air Force” went into the Glacier.
 ● The Pakistan army also tried to climb this place on April 25, 1984 but had to return due to poor
weather conditions and inadequate preparations.

● Finally, on June 25, 1987, Pakistan achieved success in creating a post called “Quaid Post” at an
altitude of 21 thousand feet, because the Indian army had finished all its ammunition.

● Since India's army had reached this place first, that is why the Indian army is sitting at higher
altitude and the Pakistan army is sitting at lower altitude, hence Indian army is in commanding
position in this region.

● Siachen assumes strategic significance for India, Pakistan and even China because it forms a hub
between Shaksgam Valley, Karakoram Pass and Aksai Chin.

● Therefore, holding Siachen is vital for India to prevent ingress not only from Pakistan but also
from China.

Interesting Facts about cold in the Siachen Glacier

● The soldiers in the Siachen region are appointed at around 18,000 to 23,000 feet above the sea
level.

● The temperature falls below up to minus 55 degrees celsius because there are approximately 22
Glaciers in this area.

● The situation in Siachen Glacier is so severe that soldiers don’t get sufficient oxygen essential for
their survival.

● Here the soldiers have to walk in the snow till the knees.

● A healthy soldier can also walk a few steps only due to extreme weather conditions.

● In Siachen Glacier, rifles are thawed frozen and machine guns primed with boiling water.

● Soldiers are bound to suffer from hypothermia, frostbite and chilblains.

● The soldier's own sweat can become his enemy as it converts into ice in his gloves and shoes and
frostbite increases the severity of the soldiers.

● In the Siachen Glacier; the soldiers need to have food of more than 4000-5000 calories per day
but they don’t get it.
● Inadequate food availability reduces the weight of the soldiers between 5 to 10 kg in 3 to 4
months.

● The special food of these soldiers is prepared by the scientists of the Defense Research and
Development Organization (DRDO).

● To get the drinking water the soldiers need to melt the ice on the stove but in the absence of
adequate fuel the availability of the safe drinking water is also a challenge for them.

● One surprising fact is that the main reason behind the death of the soldiers is not the fight
between India and Pakistan but it is extreme weather conditions.

● According to an estimate, so far 2500 soldiers of both countries have lost their lives here without
any gun battle.