CYIL Vol. 7, 2016

ČESTMÍR ČEPELKA CYIL 7 ȍ2016Ȏ number of ratifications but was not embodied in the Covenant of the League of Nations, 14 despite numerous attempts. The very start of the peremptory norm conception can be seen at the Nuremberg trials, where reasons that had been given for it arrived at the restriction of the inviolable doctrine of State-sovereignty in favor of peace and security. Thanks to the post-war judgments of Nuremberg and Tokyo, 15 State-sovereignty should be limited by certain standards recognized by the international community and they should be incorporated into the international law system. A list of these peremptory norms regrettably does not exist 16 The Nuremburg Tribunal was the first court to prosecute for crimes against peace the equivalent of today’s crime of aggression The existence of peremptory norms ( jus cogens ) was expressed and confirmed by the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (1969). 17 Also, in case of breach of a peremptory norm the legal consequences are different; they concern all States. 18 This erga omnes relation (“towards everyone/all”) is a typical feature only for jus cogens . Mostly and normally obligations are owed by States to each other, and each is only individually entitled to invoke a breach as a basis for State responsibility. The bilateralism of international law thus means that international law obligates States reciprocally in their relations inter se . 19 the solution of international controversies and renounce it as an instrument of national policy in their relations with one another. 14 See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Nations. 15 See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judgment_at_Nuremberg. For the Judgment of theTokio International Military Tribunal, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Military_Tribunal_for_the_Far_East (Tokyo Charter). 16 The International Law Commission only at its sixty-seventh session in 2015 decided to include the topic “ Jus cogens ” in the programme of work and decided to appoint Mr. Dire D. Tladi as Special Rapporteur for the topic. See Report on the work of the sixty-seventh session (2015), Chapter XII Other decisions and conclusions of the Commission, Inclusion of a new topic in the programme of work of the Commission. 17 Article 53 Treaties conflicting with a peremptory norm of general international law ( jus cogens ). A treaty is void if, at the time of its conclusion, it conflicts with a peremptory norm of general international law. For the purposes of the present Convention, a peremptory norm of general international law is a norm accepted and recognized by the international community of States as a whole as a norm from which no derogation is permitted and which can be modified only by a subsequent norm of general international law having the same character. 18 See (but still non-binding) Draft articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts, with commentaries. ILC Report on the work of its fifty-third session, 2001, A/56/10, Chapter IV. State responsibility. Text of the draft articles with commentaries thereto. The wording of Chapter III dealing with ‘Serious breaches of obligations under peremptory norms of general international law’, p. 112: [“(…) serious breaches of obligations arising under peremptory norms of general international law can attract additional consequences, not only for the responsible State but for all other States. (…) all States are entitled to invoke responsibility for breaches of obligations to the international community as a whole.”] 19 Also called synallagmatic relation (bundles of bilateral relations). See ČEPELKA Č., Jus cogens and

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