The Concept of Jus Cogens and the Concept of Obligation Erga Omnes Situated Within the Framework of Obligation and the Framework of Authorization

Abstract

The concept of international institution, dealt with in the previous chapter, refers the protection of the common aims or interests of the members of international society to the establishment of intergovernmental organizations and the concomitant creation of organs. Alongside the development of intergovernmental organizations, a second movement has taken place which locates the protection of the common or public interests of States in the ‘unorganized’ concept of international community. Descriptively, the concept of international community (community of States) has long since formed a part of international jurisprudence. However, with the development of the concept of jus cogens and the concept of obligation erga omnes within the concentric circle of the international community (of States) as a whole, the concept of international community has aspired to acquire a normative meaning. A peremptory norm of general international law is defined as a norm accepted and recognized by the international community of States as a whole as a norm from which no derogation is permitted. An obligation erga omnes is defined as an obligation towards the international community as a whole. In these definitions, it is the international community (of States) as a whole which recognizes and accepts a norm of general international law as a peremptory norm from which no derogation is permitted and to which an obligation erga omnes is owed.KeywordsInternational CommunityAdvisory OpinionLegal InterestBilateral TreatyPeremptory NormThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.