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ČESTMÍR ČEPELKA CYIL 7 ȍ2016Ȏ
number of ratifications but was not embodied in the Covenant of the League of
Nations,14 despite numerous attempts.
The very start of the peremptory norm conception can be seen at the Nuremberg
trials, where reasons that had been given for it arrived at the restriction of the
inviolable doctrine of State-sovereignty in favor of peace and security. Thanks to the
post-war judgments of Nuremberg and Tokyo,15 State-sovereignty should be limited
by certain standards recognized by the international community and they should
be incorporated into the international law system. A list of these peremptory norms
regrettably does not exist16 The Nuremburg Tribunal was the first court to prosecute
for crimes against peace the equivalent of today’s crime of aggression
The existence of peremptory norms (jus cogens) was expressed and confirmed
by the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (1969).17 Also, in case of breach of
a peremptory norm the legal consequences are different; they concern all States.18
This erga omnes relation (“towards everyone/all”) is a typical feature only for jus
cogens. Mostly and normally obligations are owed by States to each other, and each
is only individually entitled to invoke a breach as a basis for State responsibility. The
bilateralism of international law thus means that international law obligates States
reciprocally in their relations inter se.19
the solution of international controversies and renounce it as an instrument of national policy in their
relations with one another.
14 See
15 See For the Judgment of theTokio International
Military Tribunal, see
(Tokyo Charter).
16 The International Law Commission only at its sixty-seventh session in 2015 decided to include the
topic “Jus cogens” in the programme of work and decided to appoint Mr. Dire D. Tladi as Special
Rapporteur for the topic. See Report on the work of the sixty-seventh session (2015), Chapter XII
Other decisions and conclusions of the Commission, Inclusion of a new topic in the programme of
work of the Commission.
17 Article 53 Treaties conflicting with a peremptory norm of general international law (jus cogens). A treaty
is void if, at the time of its conclusion, it conflicts with a peremptory norm of general international law.
For the purposes of the present Convention, a peremptory norm of general international law is a norm
accepted and recognized by the international community of States as a whole as a norm from which no
derogation is permitted and which can be modified only by a subsequent norm of general international
law having the same character.
18 See (but still non-binding) Draft articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts,
with commentaries. ILC Report on the work of its fifty-third session, 2001, A/56/10, Chapter IV.
State responsibility. Text of the draft articles with commentaries thereto. The wording of Chapter III
dealing with ‘Serious breaches of obligations under peremptory norms of general international law’, p.
112: [“(…) serious breaches of obligations arising under peremptory norms of general international law
can attract additional consequences, not only for the responsible State but for all other States. (…) all
States are entitled to invoke responsibility for breaches of obligations to the international community
as a whole.”]
19 Also called synallagmatic relation (bundles of bilateral relations). See ČEPELKA Č., Jus cogens and