8 System-support

Abstract

This chapter analyzes another common discursive performance witnessed in relation to customary international law that consists of the bestowing of a system-support function upon customary international law. It describes the various facets of discursive performance and particular ways in which customary international law is construed as playing a system-buttressing function. It also mentions how customary international law provides a guarantee for a minimum content for international. The chapter discusses the possibility for customary international law to be the formal nest of all the fundamental doctrines of international law and reviews the closure of international law through self-explanation. It cites customary international law as a system-support function that is informed by the presupposition that customary international law guarantees that there will always be some international legal rules of sort.