Legal status of the San Remo Directive from the perspective of public international law

Abstract

SanRemo Manual, although not a binding document, seeks to provide a contemporary revision of applicable international law on armed conflict at sea. In order to prevent the previous rules from being forgotten and to create different interpretations of these rules, the mentioned directive has tried to revise the rules of naval war law in accordance with the developments of international law. However, the legal status of the SanRemo Manual in international law and its validity among jurists and governments is unclear and there are differences. Purpose of this brief is to assess the validity of the SanRemo Manual from the perspective of customary international law and soft law. Therefore, considering the content of the instruction and considering that instruction has been compiled by legal and naval experts, the author seeks to answer these questions: if SanRemo Manual is considered to be the source of the law of naval armed conflict, in which category does the resources fall, soft law or customary international law? Findings of the study indicate that the content of SanRemo instruction, Addition to having the validity of customary law in the traditional sectors, also has the validity of soft law in the fields that are innovative in the field of naval law. In recent years, SanRemo directive has also been widely cited by countries and international institutions.