A Study On The Development Of Customary International Law In International Practice

Customary international law is one of the most important sources of international law, however, in the theoretical system of contemporary international law, customary international law has been in a rather awkward position, the theory is very much disputed. In this paper, the author begins with the traditional concept of customary international law, researching from the perspective of the philosophy of law and the positivism, studying on the relevant cases and theories in the international community, in order to have a comprehensive understanding of the trend of the theoretical system of customary international law.The paper is divided into three parts:preface, text and epilogue. There are four chapters in the text:The Chapter one mainly discusses some basic conceptual issues of customary international law, including:first, the traditional concept of customary international law which is to give on a general description of customary international law, and the difference between concepts of customary international law and international customary; second, this chapter introduces the practical application of traditional customary international law in the international community and in the domestic social, aimed at pointed out that the contemporary theory of international law has neglected the importance of customary international law, indicating its importance in practice.In Chapter two, the author focuses on discussing the difficulties that traditional customary international law facing in today’s international community, analysising the reason of this dilemma, showing the limitation of traditional cutomary international law.In Chapter three, the author makes an overall review of all theories of contemporary customary international law and divides them into the "dual-source mode" and "single-source mode". This two categories have been compared detailedly by typical cases. This chapter is to make an in-depth understanding of the actual state of customary interantional law theoretically and practically.Chapter four generalizes the variation of the definition, efficacy, location, function and the constitutive mechanism of customary international law, the author aslo makes an reasonable interpretation to reach a a reasonable future expectation.As the concluding part of this dissertation, the epilogue makes a simple prediction of the future of customary international law. Although it is difficult to predict accurately, the author still believes that the customary international law will definitely play its role as justicial international law rules if adequate attention is paid to its theory and judicial practice.