Introduction

Subject(s):

History of international law — Choice of law — Conflict of laws — Customary international law — General principles of international law — Sources of international law

The Introduction starts by outlining the main purpose of this book, which is to examine the persistent objector rule in international law. This rule, which is a core aspect of mainstream international law doctrine, holds that if a state persistently and consistently objects to a newly emerging norm of customary international law during the period of the ‘formation’ of that norm, the objecting state is then exempt from the customary norm in question once it has crystallised and for so long as the objection is maintained. So therefore, the ‘majority view’ of the persistent objector rule presents it as a mechanism for states to pre-emptively exempt themselves from newly emerging norms of customary international law.