I model the ocean as an array of lines set within a two-dimensional frame, and show how the Exclusive Economic Zone emerged as an equilibrium in customary international law. I find that custom codifies the efficient Nash equilibrium of enclosure for nearshore fisheries. For highly migratory and...

This article offers a concise typology of spontaneous norms - i.e., norms that are formed or sustained through decentralized collective behavior in a community. The typology combines three criteria for identifying spontaneous norms: (i) implicit formation of (customary) rules, as opposed to...

I model the ocean as an array of lines set within a two-dimensional frame, and show how the Exclusive Economic Zone emerged as an equilibrium in customary international law. I find that custom codifies the efficient Nash equilibrium of enclosure for nearshore fisheries. For highly migratory and...

Although the Igbo customary law of succession, which espouses the primogeniture principle, has recently been lambasted by the Nigerian courts for violating the equality provisions of the Nigerian Constitution and discriminating against women, the judicial engagement with the Igbo inheritance law...

This article will assess whether the changes in asylum-seeker movement over the most recent ten years to more significantly involve new states, such as the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine, may be bringing about changes in how we assess customary international law on refugee law. The recent...

In the most recent few years, customary international law is increasingly crystalizing to affirm that states must grant nationality to children born in their territory, if they would be otherwise stateless. In prior scholarship, this author has argued that such a norm of a customary...

Today there is widespread dissatisfaction with many aspects of federal environmental law. The apparent success of early environmental regulations notwithstanding, many analysts and academics have begun to reexamine the potential of common law causes of action to supplement, if not supplant,...

This document presents one view in a debate on the relevance of environmental impact assessment as a tool for climate change mitigation. In this piece, I argue that CA is emerging as a rule of customary international law, and that, moreover, it is a potentially useful mitigation tool. In another...

The view that the common law is a body of rules laid down by the courts is, for some of its proponents, implicit in the nature of the law as a system of authoritative guidance, but it has implications that are unattractive in principle and contrary to the conventional understanding of legal...

After the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in Nevsun Resources Ltd. v. Araya, Canadian courts can, in theory, apply customary international law (CIL) to private corporate actors for the purposes of a transnational tort claim pursuant to allegations related to human rights and/or...

Despite the large number of environmental agreements at the global, regional and bilateral levels, the role of customary international law remains of great importance in practice. First, many treaties which are in force remain largely unimplemented. Secondly, treaties only bind those States that...

It is often observed in the literature on customary international law that the identification practice of the International Court of Justice for customary norms deviates from the traditional definition of customary law in Art. 38 (1) lit. b of the ICJ Statute. However, while there are many...

This text is a chapter in the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of the New Private Law. It aims to answer the question, “what can the civil law tradition tell us about the New Private Law?” It seeks to do this by offering one civilian’s perspective on private law, on U.S. private law, and on the...

In many modern nation states, both rich and poor, traditional law to this day plays an important role. Given the almost universal prevalence of traditional law, it is surprising how little we know about it. This is the first study that tries to take stock of traditional law from a cross-country...

Destinations and host communities of the state of North East India govern and control natural resources through customary laws and traditional knowledge. Compared to huge bureaucratic administration of federal government of India, traditional villages based institutional interventions have...

Fees-related protests in South African universities have pushed the decolonisation of the law curriculum to the front burner of academic discourse. As part of the curriculum, African customary law was marginalised in the courts, distorted by policy makers, and largely labelled as unfriendly to...

Harmonisation of law, a term that refers to the bringing together of two different legal traditions, has developed a negative connotation when considered in the context of Shari’ah and common law. Harmonisation began to be looked at as an attempt by one legal system to impose its values on the...

This paper is a critical evaluation of the rules of succession and inheritance under Nigerian Law in relation to constitutional provisions of the Nigerian Law.It relates the issues of constitutional and human rights conflicts in customary law of succession to the modern legal discourse with a...

The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT) contemplates the interpretation of treaties topic in its articles 31, 32 and 33, portraying the frame to be followed by one who is engaged in this difficult endeavor. Tax treaties are, fore and foremost, treaties. Therefore, the VCLT is the...

This article examines whether or not the FET standard has become a rule of customary international law. The article contains the first empirical analysis of this question based on the two conditions under which a treaty-based norm can transform into a customary rule. The article will argue that...

Before 1804, France was strictly divided in terms of legal regimes: a part was under Roman civil law while the majority of the territory was under customary laws which, as with common law, gave more flexibility to judges and fewer rights to the state. This dichotomy offers the unique opportunity...

Apart from preserving bloodlines, the male primogeniture rule of inheritance is aimed at providing material support to deceased persons’ dependants. This ‘inheritance-with-responsibilities’ principle is being eroded by socio-economic changes, such as urbanisation, labour migration and the...

The laws dealing with intestate and testamentary succession in India are not uniform. A variety of laws are in vogue whose application depends on multiple factors. While the Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Parsis and the Jews have distinct personal laws of their own, the Scheduled Tribes in India...

Objective – This article analyses the co-existence of customary forest knowledge and management with contemporary forest policies, management, and the prevailing legal/regulatory framework. In addition, this article explores the extent to which customary forest knowledge and management have...

The defence of necessity, especially its application and scope in investment arbitration, has emerged as one of the most contested questions of international investment law. International investment agreements, which constitute the prime source of this branch of law, usually contain a provision...

This paper examines the extent to which dispute resolvers in customary law systems provide widely understandable justifications for their decisions. The paper first examines the liberal-democratic reasons for the importance of publicity, understood to be wide accessibility of legal...

In recent years, the banking industry has witnessed several cases of excessive risk-taking that frequently have been attributed to problematic professional norms. We conduct experiments with employees from several banks in which we manipulate the saliency of their professional identity and...

In recent years, the banking industry has witnessed several cases of excessive risk-taking that frequently have been attributed to problematic professional norms. We conduct experiments with employees from several banks in which we manipulate the saliency of their professional identity and...

The paper looks at resolutions and operational activities of the UN as parts of processes of institutionalisation of nascent norms of CIL. It argues that institutionalisation clarifies the scope of the norm and of its application; and improves mechanisms of persuasion and compliance with the...

Customary law has been criticized from very different angles. Rational choice theorists claim that what looks like custom is nothing but self-interest. Positivists doubt that anything beyond consent assumes the force of law. In this paper, we adopt an experimental approach to test these claims....

While treaty norms only bind states that have explicitly consented to a treaty, the case is less clear with customary international law. According to the prevailing opinion in international law scholarship, states are not bound by a customary norm if they have persistently objected to the...

Indigenous customary laws often conflict with or contradict contract laws of foreign legal systems. If an indigenous person wishes to conduct an international transaction according to their customs, problems may arise where customs are inconsistent with governing laws. This paper examines the...

Given the striking commonalities between the legal systems of South Africa and Botswana, both in terms of its common and customary law, and considering the propensity of the Botswana courts to engage with South African case law, a recent case of Botswana is of particular interest. In September...

Customary international law affirms the obligation of the host state to protect foreign investors by according the minimum standard of treatment of foreign investors. These become well-established principles of fair and equitable treatment and full protection and security in foreign investment...