SOURCES OF

INTERNATIONAL
LAW
Chapter 2
 CUSTOM OR
CUSTOMARY LAW
It means a general and consistent practice of states
followed by them from a sense of legal obligation
THE MATERIAL FACTOR: PRACTICE
OF STATES OR USUS
The initial factor for determining the existence of custom
is the actual behavior of states (usus).
This includes several elements: duration, consistency,
and generality of the practice of states.
THE SUBJECTIVE FACTOR: OPINIO
JURIS
Once the existence of state practice has been established, it becomes
necessary to determine why states behave the way they do. Do states behave
the way they do because they consider it obligatory to behave thus or do
they do it only as a matter of courtesy? Opinio juris, or the belief that a
certain form of behavior is obligatory, is what makes practice an
international rule. Without it, practice is not law. ... Even humanitarian
consideration by itself does not constitute opinio juris.
 TREATIES
Treaties determine the rights and duties of states just as individual rights are determined by
contracts. Their binding force comes from the voluntary decision of sovereign states to
obligate themselves to a mode of behavior.
 Year Name Summary
1854 Convention of Kanagawa Japan is opened to American trade.
1947 General Agreement on Establishes international trade rules.
Tariffs and Trades
(GATT)
1960 1960 Treaty of Establishes the Latin American Free Trade Association.
Montevideo
2003 ASEAN Free Trade Area Agreement by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, of
local manufacturing in all ASEAN countries.
2012 Framework Agreement on Treaty between the Philippine government and the Islamic
the Bangsamoro militant group, Moro Islamic Liberation Front. The treaty
seeks to create a new autonomous political entity named
Bangsamoro to replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim
Mindanao.
 GENERAL PRINCIPLES
OF LAW RECOGNIZED
BY CIVILIZED NATIONS
general principles of law recognized by or common to the world’s major
legal systems.
JUDICIAL DECISIONS
THE TEACHINGS OF HIGHLY
QUALIFIED WRITERS AND
“PUBLICISTS”
EQUITY
 OTHER
SUPPLEMENTARY
EVIDENCE
UN Resolutions and Soft Law