The Recognition of Customs and Treaties from the Perspective of International Law-making

Legislation forms the bedrock of all legal systems, and each system operates according to its distinct structure, characteristics, and conditions. International law, unlike domestic legal systems, does not exhibit the same degree of systematic operation in this regard; non-legal issues e.g. political factors may significantly infiltrate the process of international regulation. Broadly construed, not only states but all actors within the international community engage in international law-making, utilizing both hard and soft law sources. Among these, the traditional sources of international law, custom and treaty, occupy a distinct and unique role. The central question of this study is how these sources have actively participated in the international law-making process from historical times to the present day. According to the hypothesis of this research, employing a descriptive-analytical methodology, these two sources, in a voluntary and non-coercive yet divergent manner, fulfill the needs of their creators. This study finds that while customary international law, as a collective endeavor, evolves spontaneously, implicitly, gradually, and sometimes even inadvertently, the formulation of legal norms through treaties, representing a form of individualism or particularism within the international community, transpires abruptly, explicitly, uniformly, and with deliberate intent.