General Principles of Law, a Factor of Dynamism of the International Penal Law

As international Law developed, the sources of international law showed their efficiency. According to the clauses 1 and 2 of the Article 138 of the statute of the International Court of Justice, the main sources of the international law are customs and treaties which cover, to a great extent, the traditional public international law. For this reason, courts were mainly in charge of interpreting contractual rules and explain conventional rules. Thus, the minor source of international law which might be referred to if there was no rule in the main sources, was not of so use. Upon emergence of new branches such as international penal law in international law which use the same sources of the international law and because of the fact that there are many ambiguities in this field, the minor source assumes an important role. In the present writing it is assumed that this source of the international penal law, in spite of its being a minor one, plays an important role in the practice of international penal courts and as a result in establishment of penal justice.