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Public International Law and Human Rights
Previous Year Question Paper with Solution
BLS LLB 5 Years · Sem 9
Nov 2013 Examination
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BLS LLB 5 Years Sem 9 Public International Law and Human Rights Nov 2013 Question Paper with Solutions
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First published on munotes.in on 28 September 2026.
This edition revised 7 October 2026.
Published by munotes.in, Mumbai.
Model answers written and edited by the munotes.in editorial desk.
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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 the University of Mumbai at the Nov 2013 examination.
The answers in this volume state the law as it stands today, not as it stood when the paper was set, and in this subject three changes matter. The Protection of Human Rights (Amendment) Act, 2019 allows a Judge of the Supreme Court, and not only a former Chief Justice of India, to chair the National Human Rights Commission, and cut the term from five years to three. The Indian Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure were replaced on 1 July 2024 by the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, so sedition is now section 152 with its own saving for criticism of the government, and the provisions on arrest, rape and legal aid carry new numbers. And on 21 March 2024 the Supreme Court recognised a right against the adverse effects of climate change under Articles 14 and 21. Where a question turns on a provision since replaced, the answer gives it as it then stood and the present position, and says which is which.
Contents
The questions below are the paper as the University of Mumbai set it at the Nov 2013 examination, in the order it was set.
MarksPage
MarksPage
The Paper as Set
The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the Nov 2013 examination, reproduced as the University of Mumbai set them, in the order it set them. Nothing has been reworded, added or left out. Only the answers are ours. See the original question paper.
Duration 3 hours · Total marks 100 · 25 questions answered
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.
1.
Q.1: Answer in two to three sentences, 2 marks each
20 Marks
(a)Define International law.[2]
Answer
International law is the body of rules and principles that States and other subjects of the international legal order accept as legally binding in their dealings with one another.
The classical definition is Oppenheim's. He described it as "the body of customary and conventional rules which are considered legally binding by civilised States in their intercourse with each other". Brierly put it as the body of rules and principles of action that are binding upon civilised States in their relations with one another. Starke widened it to include the rules that govern international organisations and, in some cases, individuals.
Why the classical definitions are now incomplete. All of them describe a law made by States for States alone. Three developments have changed that.
- International organisations have legal personality. The Court said so in Reparation for Injuries Suffered in the Service of the United Nations, Advisory Opinion, 1949 I.C.J. Rep. 174, where the United Nations was held able to bring an international claim.
- Individuals now hold rights and owe duties directly. Human rights treaties give them rights. International criminal law, from Nuremberg to the Rome Statute of 1998, imposes duties on them.
- Whole fields such as trade, the environment and the law of the sea are now regulated by treaty regimes with their own institutions.
A working definition for the exam is therefore that international law is the system of rules, derived from the sources in Article 38 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice, which binds States, international organisations and, in defined areas, individuals.
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