READING ASSIGNMENT

Sources of obligations in international law

1. Chapter III, Akehursts
2. Chapter 2 - Sources of International Law: Provenance and Problems, Rosalyn
Higgins, Problems and Process, International Law and How We Use It
3. Art. 38, ICJ Statute
a. Primary source v. Secondary source
b. Formal source v. Material source
4. International Conventions, Treaties:
a. Law-making treaties and ‘contract treaties’
b. Parties to international treaties and ‘internationalized contracts
5. International Customs:
a. Relationship between customary law and treaty law - Kuroda v. Jalandoni,
G.R. No L-2662, 26 March 1949
b. International humanitarian law as customary law - Yamashita v. Styer, G.R.
No. L-129, 19 December 1945
c. On creation of customary norms - Case Concerning the Military and
Paramilitary Activities in and against Nicaragua (Nicaragua v. US), ICJ
Reports, 27 June 1986
d. On creation of customary norms - North Sea Continental Shelf Cases, ICJ
Reports, 20 February 1969
e. On creation of customary norms - Asylum Case (Colombia v. Peru), ICJ
Reports, 20 November 1950
f. Unilateral acts that create legal obligations - Nuclear Test Cases, ICJ
Reports:
i. New Zealand v. France, 1974
ii. Australia v. France, 1974
iii. Request for an examination of the situation in accordance with par.
63 of the court's judgment of the 20 December 1974 in the Nuclear
Tests (New Zealand v. France) Case, 1995
g. On the creation of customary norms - Legality of the Use by a State of
Nuclear Weapons in Armed Conflict (Advisory Opinion), ICJ Reports, 8
July 1996
h. On the creation of customary norms - The Paquete Habana, 175 U.S. 677
(1900)
i. On the creation of customary norms - Case Concerning the Right of
Passage Over Indian Territory (Portugal v. India), ICJ Reports, 12 April
1960
6. General Principles of Law
a. Estoppel, Circumstantial Evidence - Case Concerning Preah Vihear Temple
(Cambodia v. Thailand), ICJ Reports, 15 June 1962
b. Obligation to warn based on general principles of law - Corfu Channel
Case, ICJ Reports, 9 April 1949
c. Reparation - Chorzow Factory Case, 1928 PCIJ Ser. A, No. 17
d. Principle of Acquired or Vested Rights - Barcelona Traction, Light and
Power Company Case, ICJ Reports, 1970
e. Principle of the Binding Force of Contracts; Pacta sunt servanda - Texaco v.
Libya, 53 ILR 389 (1978)
f. Pacta sunt servanda - Abaya v. Ebdane, G.R. No. 167919, Feb. 14, 2007
g. Saudi Arabia v. Arabian American Oil Company, 27 ILR L17
h. Principle of Nullem Crimen, Nulla Poena Sine Lege - Prosecutor v. Tadic,
ILJ, 2 October 1995
7. Judicial Decisions
a. Gibbs v. Rodriguez, GR No. L-1494, August 3, 1949
8. Scholarly writings
a. Works of the International Law Commission - Gabčíkovo-Nagymaros,
(Hungary v Slovakia), Merits, Judgment, ICJ Reports 1997, p. 7, at 38-42
(paras. 47, 50-4), 46 (para. 58), cited in A. Pellet, supra note 1, at 757-8
(para. 50)
b. Works of the International Law Commission - North Sea Continental Shelf
Judgment (Germany v Denmark; Germany v Netherlands), Merits,
Judgment, ICJ Reports 1969, p. 3, at 33, para. 49, cited in A. Pellet, supra
note 1, at 757-8, para. 49
9. Other sources:
a. Acts of international organizations
b. Soft law
c. Equity
10. Effect of UN Declarations, Security Council
11. Effect of actions of organs of international organizations created by treaty
12. Hierarchy of the sources
a. Jus cogens
b. Obligations erga omnes and international crimes
13. Codification of international law