Feel free to browse, but please note…
Latin Terms
Latin is a lovely language, so I am thrilled that there is so much of it in international law. Here are some of the more common terms that you’ll come across:
Pacta sunt servanda = ‘agreements must be kept’
The principle of pacta sunt servanda requires that treaty obligations are respected. In other words, if a party to a treaty agrees to do something, it has to actually stick to that agreement. Usually, this principle means that States cannot use a rule in their national law to get out of an obligation they’ve agreed to be bound by at the international level. This is known as performing in ‘good faith’ and is reflected in article 26 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties 1969:
‘Every treaty in force is binding upon the parties to it and must be performed by them in good faith.’
For the full text of the VCLT, see Brownlie, Basic Documents in International Law
I’m continually updating this list, but if there’s something you’d like to see added, please let me know!