Practice question · Select all that apply
Why can a rule of customary international law bind a state that has never signed anything?
Hints
- Three explain how obligation arises without a signature; one denies that it can.
- Think about what the persistent objector rule implies about states that say nothing.
Show the answer
- B. Custom is formed by a general practice of states accepted as law, not by signature
- C. Consent in international law may be tacit, expressed through conduct over time
- D. A state that objects consistently and from the outset is not bound, which shows that silence counts as acceptance
Why
The persistent objector rule is the sharpest evidence. If silence did not count as acceptance, there would be no need for a doctrine protecting the state that speaks up, and the fact that the objection must be consistent and from the outset shows the system treating a failure to object as a form of consent.
Practise The International Legal Order
The app has 5 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. Law I is free to start.
More questions on The International Legal Order
- Sort each item by the kind of international source it belongs to.
- Under Article 96.1 of the Spanish Constitution, a validly concluded treaty forms part of the internal legal…
- Complete the vocabulary of the international order.
- The lex mercatoria draws its binding force from the statutes of the states whose traders use it.
- A norm of ius cogens is distinguished from an ordinary treaty obligation by its peremptory character. What…
- Arrange these international instruments in the order they were adopted.
- How many member states does the United Nations have?