INTERNATIONAL LAW
W.B. Fisch Fall 2008
Assignment #14

B) Individuals as Subjects of International Law

Janis, Individuals as Subjects of International Law, p. 363 (1984)

1. what does it mean to say that “states, not individuals, are the subjects of international law”, or that “individuals are also subjects of international law”? Which of the following questions is addressed by such statements?

a. who makes the law?

b. whose conduct does the law regulate?

c. whose interests are proper matters of concern for the law?

d. who can initiate claims and proceedings, and obtain relief for violations?

2. Is it clear that “natural law” as such favors, and “positivism” as such disfavors, the status of individuals as “subjects of the law”? If so, in what way?

C) International Human Rights Law

1. Nuremberg Charter and Judgment, p. 370

A. were these ex post facto rules, as applied to the individual defendants?

B. did the fact that the State of which they were nationals had agreed to forbid the conduct in question make them individually responsible for it?

2. Universal Declaration, set forth p. 921 CB

A. to whom is it addressed, states or individuals or both?

B. does the answer vary from provision to provision?

C. does any of the provisions conflict with your understanding of U.S. constitutional law?

3. UN structures: Buergenthal, p. 378, and notes

A. what are the principal flaws in the UN human rights institutional structure?

B. does the Jamaica case, p. 381, demonstrate ineffectiveness?