KSLU Solved Question Papers
Public International Law
Previous Year Question Paper with Solution
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) · Sem 7
2012 Jan Examination
munotes.in
Mumbai
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 7 Public International Law 2012 Jan Question Paper with Solutions
First published on munotes.in on 21 October 2026.
Published by munotes.in, Mumbai.
Model answers written and edited by the munotes.in editorial desk.
Passages from this volume may be quoted, in print, online or by an AI system, with credit: name munotes.in and link to this volume's page. The volume may not be reproduced as a whole. Full terms at munotes.in/content-license.
munotes.in is an independent study resource for students of Karnataka State Law University. It is not affiliated with Karnataka State Law University, and is not endorsed by it.
The University does not publish an official answer key for this paper. The answers in this volume are model answers, written to show how a full-mark answer is built. They are a study aid, not an authority on what an examiner marked.
The question paper reproduced here is the paper as set by Karnataka State Law University at the 2012 Jan examination.
Contents
The questions below are the paper as Karnataka State Law University set it at the 2012 Jan examination, in the order it was set.
MarksPage
MarksPage
The Paper as Set
The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the 2012 Jan examination, reproduced as Karnataka State Law University set them, in the order it set them. Long reading passages are shortened to their first and last lines and our summary; the original paper prints them in full. Only the answers are ours. See the original question paper.
Duration 3 hours · Total marks 100 · 20 questions answered
Instructions printed on the paper
- N.B. (1) Answer all 5 questions. (2) One essay type and one short note question or problem from each Unit have to be attempted, which is referred as part (a) and (b). (3) Figures to the right indicate marks. (4) Answer should be written in English or Kannada completely.
How to use this volume
Solve the paper first, under exam conditions and against the clock. Then read the answers here and mark your own. Reading a solution before attempting the question feels productive and teaches very little, because recognising an answer is not the same as being able to write one.
Q1
Unit I
(a)Briefly explain the origin and development of International Law.[15]
Answer
For full marks, cover: what "origin" and "development" each ask for; the ancient roots (Egypt and the Hittites, India, Greece, Rome); the founders and the three schools (naturalists, positivists, Grotians), with Grotius (1609, 1625), Suarez (1612), Vattel (1758) and Bentham's word "international"; the Peace of Westphalia (1648); the four periods of growth (1648 to 1815, 1815 to 1914, 1919 to 1939, 1945 onwards) in a table; four cases that mark the change (The Paquete Habana, Lotus, Reparation, Barcelona Traction); the five changes in the character of the law; India's part; the criticism; a conclusion.
What the question asks
The origin of international law is where its rules first came from and why. Its development is how those rules grew into today's system. Both halves carry marks.
International law today is the body of rules that governs relations between States. It also governs their relations with international organisations and, in some matters, with individuals. The older definitions spoke of States alone. That change in the definition is itself the best short summary of the subject's development.
The origin: rules wherever communities met
International law did not begin with a single event. It began wherever separate communities had to deal with each other regularly.
- The ancient Near East. A treaty between Egypt and the Hittites, of about 1259 BC, provided for peace, mutual defence and the return of fugitives.
- Ancient India. The Arthashastra and the Dharmashastras set out rules on envoys, alliances and the conduct of war. An envoy was not to be killed, and unfair methods of fighting were condemned.
- Greece. The Greek city-States respected heralds, kept truces for festivals and returned the dead after battle.
- Rome. Roman law had the jus fetiale, the priestly rules for declaring war and making treaties. It also had the jus gentium, the part of Roman law applied to foreigners and said to be common to all peoples.
These rules were not international law in the modern sense. There was no system of equal, independent States. But they prove that rules arise naturally between communities. That is the true origin of the subject.
The founders and the three schools
In medieval Europe the Pope and the Emperor claimed authority over every Christian ruler. So there could be no law between equals. As that authority weakened in the sixteenth century, writers began to treat the relations of rulers as a matter of law.
Francisco de Vitoria, a Spanish theologian, argued that the peoples of the Americas had rights which Spain had to respect. Francisco Suarez, in De Legibus (1612), treated the law of nations as distinct from natural law. Alberico Gentili, an Italian teaching at Oxford, wrote on the law of war before Grotius and kept theology out of it.
Hugo Grotius, a Dutch jurist, is called the father of international law. In Mare Liberum (1609) he argued that the sea is free to all nations. In De Jure Belli ac Pacis (1625) he rested the law between nations on natural reason and on the agreement of nations.
After Grotius, writers split into three schools.
| School | Basis of the law | Leading writers |
|---|---|---|
| Naturalists | Natural law, the dictates of reason | Pufendorf |
| School | Basis of the law | Leading writers |
|---|---|---|
| Positivists | The consent and practice of States | Bynkershoek, who built on what States actually did |
| Grotians | Both reason and practice | Writers who, like Vattel in Le Droit des gens (1758), joined natural law to State practice |
The positivist view slowly won. Jeremy Bentham coined the very word "international" in his Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, published in 1789. He used it to replace the older name, the law of nations.
The Peace of Westphalia, 1648
The Thirty Years War ended with the treaties signed at Munster and Osnabruck in 1648. They are called the Peace of Westphalia.
Westphalia settled three ideas. Each ruler is supreme inside his own territory. No outside authority may dictate another State's religion or government. And States deal with each other as legal equals. These ideas are territorial sovereignty, equality of States and non-intervention. Article 2 of the United Nations Charter restates them even now. So 1648 is taken as the birth of the modern system.
The development, period by period
| Period | Main events | What it added to the law |
|---|---|---|
| 1648 to 1815 | Growth of resident embassies; writings of Bynkershoek and Vattel | Rules on envoys, the sea and neutrality, mostly as custom |
| 1815 to 1914 | Congress of Vienna (1815); Declaration of Paris (16 April 1856); Geneva Convention (22 August 1864); International Telegraph Union (17 May 1865); General Postal Union (9 October 1874); Hague Conferences (1899, 1907) | Diplomatic ranks, free navigation of rivers, the end of privateering, care of wounded soldiers, the first international organisations, codified laws of war and the Permanent Court of Arbitration |
| Period | Main events | What it added to the law |
|---|---|---|
| 1919 to 1939 | League of Nations (1919); International Labour Organisation (1919); Permanent Court of International Justice (first sitting 15 February 1922); Kellogg-Briand Pact (27 August 1928) | A general political organisation, a standing world court and the first treaty renouncing war as an instrument of national policy |
| 1945 onwards | United Nations Charter (signed 26 June 1945, in force 24 October 1945); International Court of Justice; International Law Commission (resolution 174 (II), 21 November 1947) | A ban on force, a Security Council that can bind members, codification, human rights and new subjects |
The Permanent Court gave the law its first steady body of judgments. Between 1922 and 1940 it decided 29 contentious cases and gave 27 advisory opinions.
The International Law Commission then wrote the law down. It prepared the Vienna Conventions on Diplomatic Relations (1961) and on the Law of Treaties (1969), and the Articles on State Responsibility (2001). The Law of the Sea Convention followed in 1982.
Four cases that mark the development
1. The Paquete Habana; The Lola, 175 U.S. 677 (1900). Two Spanish fishing boats were captured off Cuba by the United States navy during the war with Spain. They were unarmed and did not know of the war. The Supreme Court traced the practice of nations over several centuries. It held that coastal fishing vessels peacefully at work are exempt from capture as prize of war. It said "international law is part of our law". The case shows how a custom grows, slowly, out of the practice of many States.
2. S.S. Lotus (France v. Turkey), PCIJ Series A, No. 10 (1927). A French ship collided with a Turkish ship on the high seas, and Turkish sailors died. Turkey prosecuted the French officer of the watch. The Court upheld Turkey's jurisdiction. It said international law rests on the free will of independent States, and restrictions on them cannot be presumed. This is the high point of the positivist, State-centred law.
3. Reparation for Injuries Suffered in the Service of the United Nations, ICJ Reports 1949, p. 174. The General Assembly asked whether the United Nations could bring a claim for injuries to its agents. The Court said yes. It held that the Organization has international personality and the powers needed for its functions. This opened the law to subjects other than States.
4. Barcelona Traction, Light and Power Company, Limited (Belgium v. Spain), ICJ Reports 1970, p. 3. Belgium claimed for Belgian shareholders in a Canadian company ruined in Spain. The claim failed, because only the company's national State could protect it. But the Court separated obligations owed to one State from obligations "towards the international community as a whole". It called the second kind obligations erga omnes, the concern of all States.
Five changes in the character of the law
- From States alone to many subjects. International organisations and, for some purposes, individuals now hold rights and duties.
- From European to universal. Decolonisation more than trebled the membership of the United Nations. New States from Asia and Africa now help to make the law.
- From permitted war to a ban on force. Classical law accepted war as a right of sovereigns. The Kellogg-Briand Pact renounced it, and article 2(4) of the Charter now prohibits the threat or use of force.
- From custom to written law. Most of the law was once unwritten custom. Today the main fields are codified in treaties.
- From consent alone to community values. Article 53 of the Vienna Convention of 1969 makes void a treaty that conflicts with a peremptory norm of general international law, called jus cogens. Together with erga omnes obligations, this limits what States may agree.
India's part
British India was an original member of the League and of the International Labour Organisation. It signed the Charter in 1945. Article 51(c) of the Constitution directs the State to "foster respect for international law and treaty obligations". Newly independent States, India among them, pressed for decolonisation and for a fair law of the sea.
Criticism
The modern system was built by European States. For a long time it divided the world into "civilised" and other nations and served colonial rule. It is still weakest on the use of force, where breaches cost most. And the veto in the Security Council protects the five permanent members from its enforcement machinery. These criticisms are real, but the growth in subjects, members and written rules shows the law has moved far from its narrow origins.
Conclusion. International law originated in rules that ancient communities made whenever they dealt with one another. It took modern form in the writings of Grotius and the Peace of Westphalia of 1648. It then grew through European practice, the League of Nations and, since 1945, the United Nations and the International Law Commission. The cases trace the shift from the State-centred freedom of Lotus to the community interests of Reparation and Barcelona Traction. The law is now universal, largely written and binding on more than States alone.
The rest of the answers
The first answer is free. The rest come with the KSLU B.A. LL.B. Semester 7 solved papers.
You have read the question paper and its first answer in full. Buy the solved papers once and you can read every answer of every solved paper in this semester.
Solved papers: ₹499 Already bought it? Sign in
The question paper itself stays free.
Found an error in this volume? Report it and we will check it against the paper.