The International Law Commission is responsible for the codification and progressive development of international laws. It had its forty eighth session in 1996 and the issues of Unilateral Acts and their legal effects have figured prominently in their discussions. There is an uncertainty regarding the legal significance of Unilateral Acts because of the terminological confusion surrounding its title.
The classification of Unilateral Acts of States aim to compensate for the absence of formal requirements. In international organizations, we are in the presence of resolutions, recommendations, decisions, including the constitution of the organization which is not always defined. Some Unilateral Acts, in the process, of creating obligations and rights reveal a mechanism for receiving the internal laws of States and international organizations because it is a way of voluntary training.
Unilateral Acts create legal obligations. The International Court of Justice agrees with this statement. The Court states that "Unilateral Acts concerning the subject of rights or events may have the effect of creating legal obligations when making the declaration. That intention confers the declaration with a legal the character and commitment, the State is thenceforth by law required to follow a course of conduct that is consistent with its statement "(ICJ 1974). processes
There was a case where France was conducting a campaign to test atmospheric nuclear explosions. This triggered a dispute between France and Australia and New Zealand. Australia and New Zealand believed that the intentions of the French went against international laws. During the summer of 1974, France indicated that it would conduct more of these tests but only in the limited area the testing field. The court believed that this statement cleared the conflict.
The unilateral act carries legal consequences. It is these consequences that will allow for the distinction between acts, "political acts that are attached with legal consequences,” for these acts of legal significance: we use the term "international legal acts.”
These Unilateral commitments are based on the principle of good faith. It is generally accepted that all international relationships are based on trust. If a State enters an agreement with another state and does not value the commitments they made, the stability of international relations would be greatly weakened. A Unilateral declaration becomes a commitment vis-à-vis the international community and is, therefore, binding.
The International Law Commission's first report on Unilateral Acts of States asserts that "obligations arising mainly from legal acts, i.e. acts that affect international laws. A State may incur obligations through formal acts that are not necessarily sources of international law in the meaning of Article 38 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice. "
Therefore, it appears that Unilateral Acts were actually recognized as an expression of the will of states and so, are possible sources for the international law.
The explicit statement that Unilateral Acts are Bond creators should not obscure the fact that they do not create them. The discussion of the legal issues of Unilateral Acts also raises the question of the process of the amendments of these acts.
[...] Unilateral acts of international organizations can also operate on a reception of internal rules. Resolutions and 955, relate to creating the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda and the international tribunal operating receipt of internal rules for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of humanitarian law respectively. These includetransfering part of the treaty law embodied in the Vienna Conventions in 1949 and certain customary rules , for example in the case of the former Yugoslavia. [...]
[...] " II- Enforceability and legal effect, revealed by the fact of its admission as a source of international law Our previous development reflects the admission of unilateral acts as a source of international law The formalization of this fact, which results in the evolution of international law remains the responsibility of the Commission, This results in the implementation of violations of the international responsibility of the author.(B) A - Unilateral acts; an accepted source of international law The first report of the Commission on the unilateral acts of States says that there is "no doubt that the international recognition of the existence of formal unilateral acts of States". [...]
[...] "Some (legal) acts of states and international organizations can have the effect of introducing into the international legal order the rules set by reference to rules relating to legal state.” Although apparently distinctly internal, such unilateral acts are strictly international. The reservations of the United Kingdom regarding the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination can transpose the laws of the Commonwealth Immigrants Acts of 1962 and 1968 in the international order; this act formally determines as international in the United Kingdom, the scope of the Convention on Discrimination. [...]
[...] On the subject of the integration of unilateral acts in the international legal order, the CDI states in its text on the Guiding Principles applicable to unilateral declarations of States capable of creating legal obligations, that unilateral declaration conflicts with a peremptory norm of general international law is void". It is this fact that gives the same, the unilateral nature of source of international law. This statement is included in the 9th Report of the Commission on the unilateral acts of States, which states that "The unilateral act must be done "in accordance with international law". [...]
[...] Thus, in the case cited above about the between Australia and France, it appears that: "Just like the rule of pacta sunt treaty itself, the binding of an international obligation assumed by unilateral declaration is based on good faith.The States concerned may take into account the unilateral declarations and rely on them, and are entitled to require that the obligation thus created be respected." Similarly, the Commission in its first report on unilateral acts of States, asserts that "the obligations arising are primarily of a legal nature, that is to say, they act to produce an effect of international law. [...]
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