Study International Law with expertly written law school outlines available in Full, Cram, and Bar exam formats.
International Law is the body of rules that governs relationships between nations, international organizations, and individuals across borders. Our outline begins with the sources of international law articulated in Article 38 of the ICJ Statute: treaties, customary international law, general principles of law, and judicial decisions and scholarly writings as subsidiary means. Treaty law covers formation (negotiation, signature, ratification, accession), the role of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, reservations, interpretation under VCLT Articles 31 and 32, amendment, and termination (material breach, fundamental change of circumstances, supervening impossibility). Customary international law is covered through state practice and opinio juris, including the persistent objector doctrine and the relationship between custom and treaties. State sovereignty and jurisdiction are treated thoroughly — prescriptive, enforcement, and adjudicative jurisdiction; the five traditional bases (territorial, nationality, protective, passive personality, universal); and extraterritorial application of domestic statutes after Morrison and RJR Nabisco. Diplomatic and consular immunity under the VCDR and VCCR, sovereign immunity under the FSIA (commercial activity, expropriation, and terrorism exceptions), and act-of-state doctrine are each covered. The outline addresses international human rights law (ICCPR, CAT, ECHR), the law of armed conflict (jus ad bellum under the UN Charter, jus in bello under the Geneva Conventions, distinction and proportionality), international criminal law, and the role of the UN, ICJ, ICC, and WTO. Available in Full, Cram, and Bar formats. Connects to Constitutional Law (treaty power, foreign affairs), Administrative Law, and Criminal Law. Search terms: customary international law, Vienna Convention, sovereign immunity FSIA, treaty interpretation, jus cogens, ICJ jurisdiction, law of armed conflict.