International Law: The Law Based on the Coordination or Conflict?

One of the most prominent and urgent problems in international governance is how the different branches and norms of international law interact, and what to do in the event of conflict. The potential for conflict between norms seems inherent in any legal system. As far as norms of international law are concerned, there are a number of variables that make conflict an even more inevitable occurrence. Most of the reasons why conflict arises in international law are inherent in the nature of international law. A more practical consequence of international law essentially being created only by state consent is that many international norms are left unclear and in potential conflict with other norms. There is no inherent hierarchy as between the different sources of international law traditionally referred to (treaties, custom, general principles of law and unilateral acts of states or international organizations). In principle, they all have the same binding force. Even the higher standing of jus cogens is unrelated to its source. The emergence of the concept of jus cogens, essentially in the second half of the twentieth century, corresponds to an awareness that not all norms of international law should have the same status. Some of them protect so important and universal a value, such as the prohibition on genocide, that they have a hierarchical standing that is higher than other norms.