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The Sources of Human Rights Law : Custom, Jus Cogens, and General Principles

The Sources of Human Rights Law : Custom, Jus Cogens, and General Principles THE SOURCES OF HUMAN RIGHTS LAW: CUSTOM, JUS COGENS, AND GENERAL PRINCIPLES BRUNO SIMMA * AND PHILIP ALsTON** 1. Introduction The question of the sourees of international human rights law is of major significanee. As international human rights endeavours expand their scope and their reach, and as their potential ramifications become greater, the need to ensure that the relevant norms are solidly grounded in internationallaw assumes increasing importanee. The last few years have witnessed an ever-expanding number of contexts in which those norms are being invoked. International development assistance has become far more human rights-conscious than was the case a decade ago, labour rights issues are intruding further and further into the international trade regime, and the very legitimacy of governments is being regularly assessed on the basis of their compliance with international human rights norms. What then are the sourees of the norms that are being invoked? In many situations treaty law provides asolid and compelling legal foundation. But despite a steady increase in the number of States Parties to international treaties in reeent years, reliance upon treaties alone provides an ultimately unsatisfactory patchwork quilt of obligations and still continues to leave many States largely untouched. Thus treaty http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The Australian Year Book of International Law Online Brill

The Sources of Human Rights Law : Custom, Jus Cogens, and General Principles

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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
Copyright © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0084-7658
DOI
10.1163/26660229-012-01-900000007
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

THE SOURCES OF HUMAN RIGHTS LAW: CUSTOM, JUS COGENS, AND GENERAL PRINCIPLES BRUNO SIMMA * AND PHILIP ALsTON** 1. Introduction The question of the sourees of international human rights law is of major significanee. As international human rights endeavours expand their scope and their reach, and as their potential ramifications become greater, the need to ensure that the relevant norms are solidly grounded in internationallaw assumes increasing importanee. The last few years have witnessed an ever-expanding number of contexts in which those norms are being invoked. International development assistance has become far more human rights-conscious than was the case a decade ago, labour rights issues are intruding further and further into the international trade regime, and the very legitimacy of governments is being regularly assessed on the basis of their compliance with international human rights norms. What then are the sourees of the norms that are being invoked? In many situations treaty law provides asolid and compelling legal foundation. But despite a steady increase in the number of States Parties to international treaties in reeent years, reliance upon treaties alone provides an ultimately unsatisfactory patchwork quilt of obligations and still continues to leave many States largely untouched. Thus treaty

Journal

The Australian Year Book of International Law OnlineBrill

Published: Jan 1, 1992

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