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CYIL 7 ȍ2016Ȏ
PRINCIPLES OF THE CHARTER OF THE UNITED NATIONS ȃ
JUS COGENS
?
PRINCIPLES OF THE CHARTER
OF THE UNITED NATIONS –
JUS COGENS
?
Ernest Petrič
Abstract:
The author deals with the general problems of
jus cogens
, its nature, its
place and function in the international legal order. He departs in his analyses from
art. 53 VC IT and concludes that a norm to be a
jus cogens
should acquire general
“consent” which should reach beyond consent of State only, and the norm should
protect an important value (“content”) at our stage of development of human
society. Next he exposes to these criteria the basic principles of the UN Charter and
suggest that they, confirming to both criteria could be accepted as norms/principles
of contemporary
jus cogens
.
Resumé:
Autor se v článku zabývá obecnými problémy
jus cogens
, jeho povahou,
místem a funkcí v mezinárodněprávním řádu. Odchyluje se přitom ve své analýze
od čl. 53 Vídeňské úmluvy o smluvním právu a dochází k závěru, že norma, aby
měla povahu
jus cogens
, by měla získat obecný „souhlas“, který by měl přesahovat
pouze souhlas státu, a taková norma by měla současně chránit důležitou hodnotu
(„obsah“) na daném stupni vývoje lidské společnosti. Dále autor používá tato
kritéria na základní principy Charty OSN a naznačuje, že splňují obě tato kritéria,
a proto by mohly být přijaté jako normy / zásady současného
jus cogens
.
Key words:
jus cogens
; basic principles of international law; UN Charter; consent;
content, international legal order.
On the Author: Prof. Dr. Ernest Petrič
is professor of international law at the
European Faculty of Law, Ljubljana, Slovenia. Member of ILC and its former
chairman. Judge of Constitutional court of the Republic of Slovenia. Former State
secretary of the MFA of Slovenia and ambassador/permanent representative to USA,
India, Austria, UN-New York, IAEA.
Introduction
People have lived for about three generations in the period that has known
the “United Nations”, i.e. in the international community that emerged from the
ruins left after both World Wars and was formally established 70 years ago when the
Charter of the United Nations came into force. This new international order, based
on new principles of international law and with institutions that had never existed
before, certainly did not emerge overnight. The transition from the world order that
was in fact still based on the Peace of Westphalia, which was established during and
after the 30 Years’ War in the 17
th
century, via the world order based on the system of
the Holy Alliance and the Great Powers constituting the Concert of Europe, to the