KSLU Solved Question Papers
Public International Law
Previous Year Question Paper with Solution
B.B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) · Sem 7
2025 Jan Examination
munotes.in
Mumbai
B.B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 7 Public International Law 2025 Jan Question Paper with Solutions
First published on munotes.in on 4 November 2026.
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Contents
The questions below are the paper as Karnataka State Law University set it at the 2025 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 2025 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 80 · 20 questions answered
Instructions printed on the paper
- N.B. (1) Answer all five Units. (2) One essay type question and short note/problem compulsory from each Unit. (3) Figures to the right indicate marks. (4) Answer should be written either 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)What are the sources of International Law ?[10]
Answer
For full marks, cover: the meaning of "source" (formal and material); article 38(1) of the ICJ Statute as the list; each source with its elements and a case: conventions, custom (State practice and opinio juris, North Sea, Asylum Case, Lotus), general principles (Chorzow Factory), judicial decisions (article 59) and writers (Paquete Habana); equity (article 38(2)); sources outside the list (General Assembly resolutions, unilateral acts, decisions of organisations); jus cogens and the order of sources.
Meaning of "source"
A formal source is the process that gives a rule its binding force, such as a treaty or a custom. A material source is where the content of the rule is found, such as a draft by the International Law Commission. International law has no legislature, so its formal sources are the methods by which States make law.
The accepted statement is article 38(1) of the Statute of the International Court of Justice. The Court, "whose function is to decide in accordance with international law", shall apply four things, listed below.
1. International conventions
Conventions or treaties, "whether general or particular, establishing rules expressly recognized by the contesting states", come first. A treaty binds only the States that are parties to it. General multilateral treaties, like the UN Charter or the Vienna Conventions, work almost like legislation for their many parties.
2. International custom
Custom is "evidence of a general practice accepted as law". It has two elements:
- State practice. What States actually do: their laws, official statements, diplomatic acts and judicial decisions. It must be extensive and virtually uniform.
- Opinio juris. The belief that the practice is legally required, not just habit or courtesy.
North Sea Continental Shelf Cases, ICJ Reports 1969, p. 3, set the test. Germany had not ratified the 1958 Continental Shelf Convention. Denmark and the Netherlands argued that its equidistance rule had become custom. The Court disagreed. Practice had to be extensive and virtually uniform, and accompanied by a belief that it was obligatory. Neither was shown.
A regional or local custom must be proved by the State relying on it. In the Asylum Case (Colombia v. Peru), ICJ Reports 1950, p. 266, Colombia failed to prove a Latin American custom of diplomatic asylum. The practice showed too much "contradiction and fluctuation".
A persistent objector, a State that objects to a rule from its start, is not bound by it. The Fisheries Case (United Kingdom v. Norway), ICJ Reports 1951, p. 116, held the ten-mile rule for bays inapplicable to Norway, which had always opposed it.
3. General principles of law
These are principles common to the major legal systems of the world. They fill gaps where no treaty or custom applies. Examples are good faith, estoppel, res judicata, and the duty to make reparation.
In the Factory at Chorzow (Germany v. Poland), PCIJ Series A, No. 17 (1928), Poland had wrongly taken over a German company's factory. The Permanent Court said it is "a principle of international law, or even of law in general" that any breach of an engagement involves an obligation to make reparation. Reparation must wipe out the consequences of the illegal act as far as possible.
The phrase "civilized nations" is a relic of the colonial era. Today it means the legal systems of all nations.
4. Judicial decisions and writings
These are "subsidiary means for the determination of rules of law". They do not create law but show what the law is.
Judicial decisions. Under article 59 of the Statute, a decision of the Court binds only the parties and only in that case. There is no binding precedent. In practice the Court follows its earlier decisions closely.
Writings of publicists. The works of leading jurists are evidence of the law. In The Paquete Habana (1900) the United States Supreme Court treated them as "trustworthy evidence of what the law really is". It used them to find a customary rule protecting coastal fishing boats in war.
Equity
Under article 38(2) the Court may decide ex aequo et bono, on what is fair and right, only if the parties agree. Equity within the law, as a means of applying rules fairly, is used more often.
Sources outside article 38
- General Assembly resolutions. They do not bind as such, but they can express opinio juris. The Court used resolution 2625 (XXV) this way in Military and Paramilitary Activities in and against Nicaragua (Nicaragua v. United States of America), judgment of 27 June 1986.
- Unilateral declarations can bind the State that makes them.
- Decisions of international organisations, such as binding Security Council decisions under article 25 of the Charter.
Order of sources and jus cogens
Article 38 lists no formal ranking, but in practice a specific treaty is applied before general custom. Above all sources stand peremptory norms (jus cogens). Under article 53 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, a treaty conflicting with one is void.
Conclusion. Article 38(1) of the ICJ Statute names conventions, custom and general principles as the sources of international law. Judicial decisions and writings are subsidiary means. Custom needs both practice and opinio juris, as North Sea holds, and general principles fill gaps, as Chorzow Factory shows. General Assembly resolutions and unilateral acts now add to the list, and jus cogens limits what any source can do.
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