I The Nature of International Law and the Concept of Sources

Subject(s):

Settlement of disputes

This chapter considers sources of international law. The discussion covers formal and material sources, recognized formal sources, nature and operation of the sources, States and non-State actors, and religious law as a rival or additional source. It also examines whether the theory of sources is still sufficient. It suggests that the dramatis personae of the international legal scene include entities other than States, referred to in the literature as, for example, ‘non-State actors’, and ‘multi-stakeholders’. It is at the least a practical working hypothesis that the law governing relationships with and between these entities, insofar as it varies from that governing inter-State relations, is attributable to the same classic sources.