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, ...

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 ...

The EFTA Court has on numerous occasions faced arguments based on international law rules that exist outside the EEA system, and it has dealt with such arguments in disparate ways. The Court is receptive to arguments based on the European Convention on Human Rights, while flatly refusing to engage with arguments based on other treaties. This article outlines the Courtʼs practice in such cases and ...

Folkeretten har regler om statsimmunitet og diplomatisk immunitet, som gir stater og deres representanter vern mot fremmede staters domstoler og andre myndigheter. Norsk sivilprosess har bestemmelser om sektormonisme, som sier at folkeretten går foran norsk lov ved motstrid. Dette utgangspunktet kan virke enkelt. Folkerettens immunitetsregler har vært oppe for norske domstoler i en rekke saker, og ...

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 ...

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 ...