This article titled ‘Jus Cogens: Origin, Meaning and Explanation’ is written by Sahajpreet Bhusari and discusses the maxim of Jus Cogens. I. Origin and Meaning Jus Cogens is a legal term of Latin origin. In Latin, the term literally means ‘compelling law’[1]. II. Explanation A corpus of fundamental principles of international law known as jus cogens or peremptory norm binds all governments and allows no exceptions. It is essentially a set of norms that establish...
This article titled ‘Jus Cogens: Origin, Meaning and Explanation’ is written by Sahajpreet Bhusari and discusses the maxim of Jus Cogens.
I. Origin and Meaning
Jus Cogens is a legal term of Latin origin. In Latin, the term literally means ‘compelling law’[1].
II. Explanation
A corpus of fundamental principles of international law known as jus cogens or peremptory norm binds all governments and allows no exceptions. It is essentially a set of norms that establish international duties that are necessary for the defence of the international community’s core interests, and any transgression of these norms is thus regarded as a crime against the community as a whole.
III. Application
In all circumstances, it binds all members of the world community. Genocide, slavery or the slave trade, torture or other inhumane treatment, lengthy arbitrary detention, and racial discrimination are all prohibited under jus cogens.
Any activity or treaty carried out by nations or international organisations that violate human dignity and rights will be void because it violates the idea of jus cogens. Jus Cogens is a legal concept that exists to safeguard and uphold human dignity and rights.
IV. Case Laws
In Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro[2], Serbia was accused of attempting to exterminate Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Muslim population, resulting in violations of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, so invoking an article of the genocide convention.
In this case, it was unanimously decided that Serbia was not directly involved nor complicit in the genocide, but rather breached the genocide convention by failing to prevent it, the genocide convention being a part of jus cogens.
In this case, Justice Lauterpacht supported the ruling and defined jus cogens as a notion that is superior to both customary law and treaties since it is founded on natural law and humanity’s basics. He further linked jus cogens to general principles of law, claiming that regardless of its origin, it encompasses all of the fundamentals of a necessary law at the international level, making it the superior-most in the hierarchy.
References
[1] What is Jus Cogens?, Available Here.
[2] [2007] ICJ 2.
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