USC School of Law and Governance
Public
International
Law
DARYL BRETCH M. LARGO, AB POSC, LLB, LLM
GUIDE QUESTIONS:
1. Is Public International Law a “law”?
2. How is public international law “formed” and
“enforced” to make it a law?
3. Who are the "subjects" of international law?
2020 | DBL.USC
Module 1
Points of Discussion
Meaning and Nature of International Law
Historical Development of Public International Law
Characteristics of Public International law
Public International law as ‘binding law’
The scope of Public International law
Public International Law vs. Private International Law
Entities that create International law
Subjects of Public International law
2020 | DBL.USC
PIL as Law Subjects of PIL
1. Meaning/Nature 1. Subjects v. Objects
2. Brief History 2. Evolution
3. Characteristics 3. Public v. Private
4. Formation and International Law
Enforcement
2020 | DBL.USC
Evolution of the Concept
of International Law
Traditional: 1. States
Modern: 1. States
2. Entities
Contemporary: 1. States
2. Organizations
3. Persons
2020 | DBL.USC
Post-Modern or Contemporary Definition:
Section 101, Restatement [Third] of the Law by the
American Law Institute of Foreign Relations Law of
the United States (1987):
“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”
Public International Law : Private International Law:
governs the activities of governs the activities of
states and other individuals, corporations, and
international persons or other private entities when
entities in relation to each
other. It governs they cross national borders
“relationships” of and in controversies involving
international persons foreign element. It resolves
inter se. “conflict of laws”.
CLASSICAL AGE (16th-18th Century)
Mare Liberium (1609) & The Law of War and Peace (1625)
of Hugo Grotius
Treaty of Westphalia (1648)
Jeremy Bentham (1789)
Brief History
MODERN-CONTEMPORARY (19th-21st Century)
Lieber Code (1863); PCA (1899)
Hague (1907) & Geneva (1949) Conventions; League of
Nations-PCIJ (1922-1944), UN-ICJ (1945), ILC (1948),
Modern International Law
09.
REGIMES
1 2 3
LAWS OF
LAWS OF PEACE LAWS OF WAR
NEUTRALITY
Law of Treaties Jus ad Bellum
Govern the conduct
Law of the Sea Jus in Bello
of states not
Diplomatic
engaged in war
Relations, etc.
05.
Reparation for Injuries Case
(ICJ Advisory Opinion 1949)
“International legal personality" - the ability to
POSSESS international rights and duties and the
power to SUSTAIN these rights by bringing
international claims”.
While it is conceded that original international legal
personality belongs to the main actors of
international law, namely states, the UN had
international legal personality through the fact that
its member states, by the very fact of creating such
an organization, must have transferred some of their
powers over the organization.
With international legal personality
see: Reparation for Injuries Case (ICJ Advisory
Opinion 1949)
Subjects of Primarily: States
PIL See: Akehurst
Secondarily: International
Organizations, NGOs, certain
Individuals
12.
Characteristics
of PIL
CONSENT-BASED HORIZONTAL SELF-HELP
Treaty-based No Supreme Retorsion
Practice-based Authority Reprisal
Sovereign States Countermeasures
