1.4 General Principles and Rules of Public International Law

The system's constitutional grammar — the principles every rule presupposes: Sovereign equality — states are legally equal regardless of power, population or wealth (Charter Art. 2(1)); Non-use of force — the threat or use of force against territorial integrity or political independence is prohibited (Charter Art. 2(4)) — the century's greatest normative achievement (Unit 11); Non-intervention — no state may intervene in matters within another's domestic jurisdiction (Charter Art. 2(7); the Friendly Relations Declaration, 1970); Pacta sunt servanda — treaties bind in good faith (VCLT Art. 26); Good faith — the system's master principle (estoppel, acquiescence, abuse of rights all flow from it); Peaceful settlement of disputes (Charter Art. 2(3), Art. 33 — Unit 10); Self-determination of peoples — from the Charter's principle to the decolonization era's engine; Sovereignty over natural resources — permanent sovereignty as the new states' economic constitution; State responsibility — every breach engages responsibility (Unit 5); Jus cogens — peremptory norms (prohibition of aggression, genocide, slavery, torture) overriding consent (Unit 9). Plus the working rules every practitioner uses: pacta tertiis nec nocent nec prosunt (treaties neither harm nor benefit third parties without consent); ex injuria jus non oritur (no right from wrongdoing); par in parem (equality and immunity); nullum crimen sine lege (legality in international criminal law); and the Lotus presumption — restrictions on sovereignty are not to be presumed.