PUBLIC INTERNATIONAL LAW GOOGLE CLASSROM Q1

1. ARE RESOLUTIONS AND DECLARATIONS OF THE UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY A SOURCE OF

INTERNATIONAL LAW?
2. IS STATE SOVEREIGN ABSOLUTE?
3. WHAT IS THE CONCEPT OF ASSOCIATION UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW?
WHAT ARE THE REQUISITES FOR AN ASSOCIATION BE LAWFUL

ANSWERS

1. No. The UN General Assembly’s resolutions and declarations are generally not binding on anybody.
The International Court of Justice can bind states only when states consent to be bound. Declarations of
legal principles and Resolutions by the United Nations are generally considered merely
recommendatory. But if they are supported by all the states, they are an expression of opinio juris
communis.

2. No. A state sovereign is not absolute.

International law defines sovereign states as having a permanent population, defined territory, one
government, and the capacity to enter into relations with other sovereign states. It is also normally
understood that a sovereign state is neither dependent on nor subjected to any other power or state.

And according to the Montevideo Convention of 1933 on Rights and Duties of States:

“The state as a person of international law should possess the following qualifications:

(a) a permanent population;

(b) a defined territory;

(c) government;

(d) the capacity to enter into relations with other States.”

Sovereignty means independence from outside control. The Montevideo Convention expresses this in
positive terms as including “the capacity to enter into relations with other States.” This latter element of
sovereignty, however, is dependent on recognition.

An entity may in fact possess all the elements of a state but if one or more states do not extend
recognition to it, the entity would not be able to establish relations with those states. Incidentally,
although the Philippines was not yet an independent state in 1945, it was accepted as one of the original
signatories of the United Nations Charter.

The sovereignty of one state ends when the sovereignty of another state begins. State sovereignty is the
supreme legal authority in relation to subjects WITHIN its territorial domain. However, in the
international sphere, sovereignty realizes itself in the existence of a large number of sovereignties, such
that there prevails in fact dependence or co-existence of sovereignty
“Soft Law" Not included among the sources is what a growing literature refers to as “soft law.” Others
prefer to call this category “non-treaty agreements.” They are international agreements not concluded
as treaties and therefore not covered by the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. Other sources of
soft law are administrative rules which guide the practice of states in relation to international
organizations. These are mostly administrative procedures that are carried out with varying degrees of
consistency and uniformity that may eventually ripen into customary law or become formalized later on
in treaties. Soft law plays an important role in international relations because often states prefer non-
treaty obligations as a simpler and more flexible foundation for their future relations. The difference lies
mainly in the wish of the parties to model their relationship in a way that excludes the application of
treaty or customary law on the consequences of a breach of obligations