Human Rights and Humanitarian Norms as Customary Law

This is the first scholarly book to concentrate on the important contemporary issue of human rights in the discipline of international law. It examines firstly how human rights and humanitarian norms relate to customary law, and then how they relate to the law of state responsibility.

Although the protection of human rights has seen a rapid growth in many areas, little attention has been paid in scholarly literature to the place of human rights in the discipline of international law. This book is an attempt to fill that gap. The inquiry is divided into two principal areas of discussion. Firstly, it looks at the relationship between human rights and humanitarian norms and customary law. Secondly, it concerns itself with the relationship between human rights and humanitarian norms on the one hand, and the law of state responsibility on the other. The author examines how contemporary human rights and humanitarian law meshes with the general principles of international law and particularly with the principles governing the international responsibility of States. The author clarifies the status of international human rights and humanitarian norms in public international law, and examines the sources, evidence, and process of the creation of such rights.