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Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law [MPEPIL]

Reasonableness in International Law

Olivier Corten, Robert Kolb

From: Oxford Public International Law (http://opil.ouplaw.com). (c) Oxford University Press, 2023. All Rights Reserved.date: 11 February 2025

Subject(s):
Equity — Sovereignty — Soft law

Published under the auspices of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law under the direction of Professor Anne Peters (2021–) and Professor Rüdiger Wolfrum (2004–2020). 

1 The concept of reasonableness exhibits an important link with human reason, a philosophical concept par excellence. Reasonableness is also generally perceived as opening the door to several ethical or moral, rather than legal, considerations (see also Justice and Morality in International Relations). A number of legal philosophers insist upon the importance of reasonableness in law. Furthermore, lawyers are able to fill lacunae in existing positive law by reference to reasonableness, and thereby also to societal values and even to conceptions of natural law...
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