This book begins with the belief that, if a moral principle cannot be identified in the language of the law, if law is not underpinned by a moral understanding of the norm, if the moral accusation is not attached to the violations of certain indispensable norms of the law, then we are violating the peremptory character of the universality of the moral law. The book vicariously objects to any dispute for the advantage of the impunity of those who have cruelly contravened the corpus juris of international peremptory criminal law. What justifies the law in recognizing certain principles as peremptory derives from the highest genetic merit for the international human community as a whole. Here, the term ‘peremptory’, for classical morality, is seen to encompass love for the spirit of truth, for the strength of equality of arms and for the reaffirmation of the value of the essence of man where its infringements violate the indispensable universal rights of nature. This is regardless of whether its perpetrators are Western or non-Western.

The Julian Assange case reminds us of the well-known Scandinavian narrative, Keiserens Nye klæder (The Emperor’s New Clothes). Once upon a time, two tailors weaved new clothes for an emperor. They claimed they used a magic fabric that apparently less talented people could not see. In reality, they wove nothing; they had no loom at all. However, they pretended with gestures of the hand that the loom was active. No one wanted to be the less gifted person, so everyone lied and confirmed the clothes were progressing. The emperor finally put on the magic clothes and marched naked around the capital city with the members of his entourage holding the magic train. Unexpectedly, a guiltless little child, shouted out with a confident voice “Men han har jo ikke noget paa” (“But he doesn’t have anything on!”). The emperor knew the child was right, but decided he must bear it until the procession was over. Human rights or international criminal justice is not simply hocus-pocus, but it seems to be so in the case of Assange, who has enlightened the world population about the hidden criminal political laundering of the big, powerful states. This book explores the propensity towards evil in the nature of collective entities based on political and economic gains against the international community as a whole. It underlines that immoral criminal political laundering is the basic reason for money laundries throughout the globe.

Focusing on how states have utilized the persistent objector rule in practice, this volume details how the rule emerged and operates, how it should be conceptualised, and what its implications are for the binding nature of customary international law.

Because of its unique nature, the sources of international law are not always easy to identify and interpret. This book provides an ideal introduction to these sources for anyone needing to better understand where international law comes from. As well as looking at treaties and custom, the book will look at more modern and controversial sources.

Peremptory Norms of General International Law (Jus Cogens): Disquisitions and Dispositions is a collection of contributions on various aspects of jus cogens in international law.

This work explores in depth the legal consequences of peremptory norms.

International order is one of the most challenging issues in political ethics today, and its place within the multifaceted fleld of politics is frequently debated. The diverse phenomena resulting from 'globalisation' - particularly in the wake of the end of the so-called Cold War - urge us to think about our 'world' in terms of a single political entity. Besides the existing international institutions, however, it is still open to question what this entity should be and what concrete political practices should correspond to it. In the essays collected in this book, political scientists, sociologists, philosophers, theologians and policy advisors explore how political practices can be institutionally localised without necessarily becoming incorporated into structures of governance. Political ethics, as presented in this book, seeks to address the particular practices of power, justice, and peace of citizens themselves, and to assess their relevance for the shaping of international insti

This work constitutes a full analysis of Just War Theory in each of its aspects, representing a complete exposition of the corpus of International Law, Jus ad Bellum, and exploring Humanitarian Law of Armed Conflict, Jus in Bello. This comprises the rules that should govern armed conflict, and is called humanitarian precisely because it aims at safeguarding humanitarian values and human rights in times of war. Consequently, this book covers the Law of War in its entirety, both the Jus ad Bellum category – justifications of war – as well as the Jus in Bello category. Extensively analyzed are the following aspects of the use of military force: Self-Defense in International Law, Humanitarian Intervention, National Liberation Wars, Pro-democracy intervention, United Nations Peacekeeping and Peace-enforcement action, Nuclear Weapons, Law of Armed Conflict - International Humanitarian Law, Illegal Use of Force and Statehood.

This book provides a comprehensive political and legal examination of jus cogens, a complex doctrine essential to contemporary international society.

This book examines the evolution of customary international law (CIL) as a source of international law. Using the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) as a key case study, the book explores the importance of CIL in the development of international criminal law and focuses on the ways in which international criminal tribunals can be said to change the ways in which CIL is formed and identified. In doing so, the book surveys the process and substance of CIL, as well as the problematic distinction between the elements of state practice and opinio juris. By applying an inclusive positivist approach, Noora Arajärvi analyses the methodologies of identification of CIL in selected cases of the ICTY, and their normative foundations. Through examination of the case-law and the reasoning of courts and tribunals, Arajärvi demonstrates to what extent the court's chosen method of identification of CIL affects the process of custom formation and the resulting system of norms in general. The book will be of great value to researchers and scholars of international law, international relations, and practitioners with interests in customary international law.