This article examines the application of teachings by the International Court of Justice between 2016 and 2022. The Court did not cite teachings in its majority opinions during this period. It did cite works from the International Law Commission, which suggests that these are considered different from teachings and possibly have more weight. Judges cited teachings in their individual opinions. Judge ...

The People’s Republic of China (‘China’) has adopted legislation threatening to invade the Republic of China (‘Taiwan’) if the latter declares independence. Threats of force are prohibited by the UN Charter Article 2(4) and equivalent customary international law. This article proceeds along two apparently contradictory strands. On the one hand, the prohibition probably does not apply to non-State ...

Article 38(1) of the Statute of the International Court of Justice (ICJ Statute) instructs the Court to ‘apply … the teachings of the most highly qualified publicists’. This raises the question of how to decide who these ‘publicists’ are and how to rank them. This article suggests four factors that the Court’s judges apparently use when assessing the weight of ‘teachings’: the quality of the work, ...

Mange lovbestemmelser har ordlyden «fremmed stat» eller lignende, uten å forklare hvordan dette skal tolkes. Denne artikkelen handler om hva som skal regnes som en stat, og hvilken regjering som kan representere staten i tilfeller der dette er omstridt. De aktuelle lovbestemmelsene kan tolkes på iallfall to måter, i lys av folkerettens regler om stater og regjeringer, eller slik at norske myndigheters ...

This article examines the International Court of Justice’s methodology in cases where it interprets its own decisions under the procedure in Article 60 of the Statute. The Court is constrained by respect for the res judicata of the previous decision. When interpreting the decision the Court and its judges strive to find the intention behind a decision, and emphasise elements that include wording, ...

This article examines when states are allowed to use force against neutral merchant ships outside territorial waters. This is regulated by both international humanitarian law and the prohibition of the use of force, which apply concurrently to naval warfare. The prohibition of the use of force imposes narrower limits than international humanitarian law, in the sense that certain actions that have ...