Suppose that a group of states wants to create a regional international organization to control carbon emissions by its members. Discuss the primary and secondary sources the organization would look to in crafting international laws for its members to follow.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

International law is typically derived from existing agreements, customs, and behaviors. The first primary source an international organization would look to is existing treaties. A treaty is a binding agreement between two or more states. Any treaty that relates to carbon emissions could be incorporated into the new international organizations laws. The fact that states have agreed to certain conditions in the past makes those agreements valuable as a source for current agreements. The second primary source for international law is custom, or the practices or customary actions that states accept as law. In the above example, the international organization would examine any rules or actions states regularly take in order to curb carbon emissions. If certain states use any kind of system for capping or trading carbon emissions, such systems could be used as a basis for the new international organization’s laws. One secondary source is what is known as general principles, or laws or customs that operate in a similar way or on similar principles among states. If many states punish carbon polluters within their own borders in essentially the same way, then similar laws could be crafted for the international organization seeking to address carbon polluters. Another secondary source is the writings of jurists or existing court decisions. These can be decisions or writings of international courts, national courts, or local courts.