The Law of International Customs in the International Law

Abstract

The area of legal regulation related to customs norm formation isn't clearly designated and sufficiently examined in the doctrine of international law. Also, there is no unified point of view on its title. A variety of terms can be met in scientific studies. The author proposes to entitle this area of international law as “law of international customs” — the most accurate term, corresponding to its content. The article reveals the role and place of the law of international customs in the international legal system. The differences and similarities of this institute of international law in relation to the law of treaties are shown. Scientific doctrines on the content and development of this institute of international law are also considered. The author shows which rules are lying on the basis of customs norm-formation and substantiates his position on this issue. The object and the subject of regulation of the law of international customs are clarified. The question of norm-formation and its stages is examined. The article reveals influence of treaty rules, decisions of judicial and other international bodies on the process of custom normformation. Questions over necessity of the codification of this process, development of appropriate criteria relating to the formation of international custom and its norms are risen. The author proposes to develop relevant draft articles, adopting them as a UN resolution, and then to sign a Convention on the Law of international customs, which should fix currently established customary rules of international law, and also new treaty rules aimed to streamline the custom norm-formation, giving it more rigorous, systematic view. The state of scientific researches in this area and the ways of their further development are shown. Separate formulations of the law of international customs are presented. The author gives definition of the law of international customs, which is proposed to be understood as the institute of international law, including a set of customary rules of international law regulating interstate relations in the questions of international custom establishment, its validity, amending and termination of existence, the conceptual apparatus in this area.