Practice question
An international tribunal encounters an issue not fully resolved by treaty or custom. It considers an established recognized general principle to address the remaining issue. Counsel objects that principles may only decorate reasoning and can never support rights or procedural rules. Which is best?
- The ILC functions text recognizes substantive, secondary and procedural uses and complementary operation
- General principles are legally meaningless decoration
- Only private opinion can fill any issue
- The tribunal must invent a personal fairness rule
- Every legal gap automatically ends jurisdiction
Legal references
- ILC A/CN.4/L.1018, May 20, 2025, Drafting Committee second-reading text, Conclusions 5, 6, 7 and 10; adopted by the Commission April 27, 2026: https://documents.un.org/doc/undoc/ltd/g25/079/72/pdf/g2507972.pdf
- ILC Daily Bulletin, April 27, 2026, 3729th meeting, expressly recording adoption of Conclusions 1-12 from A/CN.4/L.1018: https://legal.un.org/ilc/sessions/77/bulletin.shtml
- ICJ Statute Article 38(1)(c): https://legal.un.org/avl/pdf/ha/sicj/icj_statute_e.pdf
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