ILC WORK ON THE CODIFICATION OF GENERAL LEGAL PRINCIPLES

Abstract

The codification of sources of international law is a monolith and lengthy project. After many decades of codifying international treaty law and international customary law, the International Law Commission has finally decided to tackle the topic of General principles of law as late as 2018. The codification of general legal principles is challenging for many reasons: the unclear or ambiguous practice of states and international justice, lack of unity of opinion in the doctrine, and terminological inconsistency. However, in the current debate within the International Law Commission, the most controversial issue is the idea of the “two-category” approach which entails their dual origin. Namely, they can be derived not only from national legal systems but also from the international legal order itself. The paper provides an overview of the work of the International Law Commission accomplished so far, with the aim to shed light on certain aspects of the proposed course of action.