Exceptions in International Law

Abstract

In international law, as in every legal system, rules are invariably subject to exceptions. This book brings together experts in legal theory and international law to investigate this phenomenon from both a theoretical and doctrinal perspective. It begins with several chapters looking at the relationship between rules and exceptions from different jurisprudential perspectives. These chapters serve to narrow down the principal types of exceptions, and what is at stake in deciding whether a given legal condition should be seen as part of a rule or as a self-standing exception. An important element is deciding how to allocate the burden of proving that the facts relevant to the condition are present. Subsequent chapters draw on these theoretical analyses, applying their insights to the way that exceptions exist in a wide range of topics and areas of international law, including self-defence, exceptions in treaty law, circumstances precluding wrongfulness in state responsibility, and the prohibition on derogations to jus cogens, as well as the specific regimes of international environmental law, international trade law, international investment law, and international criminal law.