The Principle of Good Faith in Public International Law
Abstract
Honesty, loyalty and reasonableness together refer to the principle of good faith in contemporary private law. The principle of good faith historically emerged as a natural law principle deriving from Roman law of nations, the universal set of rules applicable for all mankind. However, it also has immense historical effects on the early modern theories of international law. Being based on natural law and morality, good faith is well-equipped to be a fundamental standard of behavior in contemporary international law concerns. Good faith manifests itself as pacta sunt servanda as the basis of international treaty law. As a principle referring to honesty, loyalty and reasonableness, it guarantees the prohibition of the abuse of power and provides equitable solutions in legal relationships between sovereigns and private actors. Accordingly this article examines the application of the classical Roman principle of good faith in international law from a transhistorical perspective to clarify its contemporary applications, taking refugee law as an example. It concerns itself with the fundamental elements of good faith, the historical emergence of the principle, its relationship with early modern international legal theories and its contemporary significance in refugee law.
Received: 23.10.2019
Accepted: 29.12.2019
Published online: 03.07.2020
Downloads
Last update: 08/02/2022
The authors, by submitting their manuscripts to the Estudios Deusto. Revista de Derecho Público, accept the conditions listed below on copyright and undertake to comply with them.
- Authorship: The author must be the sole creator of the work or legally acting on behalf of and with the full agreement of all the authors.
- Copyright, liability and Ethical Guidelines:
- Authors warrant that their manuscript is original; has not been previously copyrighted or published in any form; is not under consideration for publication elsewhere; its submission and publication do not violate the Ethical Guidelines of Estudios Deusto. Revista de Derecho Público and any codes (of conduct), laws or any rights of any third party; and no publication payment by the Publisher (University of Deusto) is required.
- Authors grant to the Publisher the worldwide, sub-licensable, and royalty-free right to exploit the manuscript in all forms and media of expression, now known or developed in the future, for educational and scholarly purposes.
- Authors retain the right to present, display, distribute, develop, and republish their manuscript to progress their scientific career provided the original publication source (Estudios Deusto. Revista de Derecho Público) is properly acknowledged and in a way that does not suggest the Publisher endorses them or their use of the work.
- Authors warrant that no permissions or licences of any kind have been granted or will be granted that might infringe the rights granted to the Publisher.
- Authors are solely liable for the consequences that may arise from third parties’ complaints about the submitted manuscript and its publication in Estudios de Deusto. Revista de Derecho Público.
- Users: Estudios de Deusto. Revista de Derecho Público is an Open Access publication. Its content is free for full and immediate access, reading, search, download, distribution and reuse in any medium or format only for non-commercial purposes and in compliance with any applicable copyright legislation, without prior permission from the Publisher or the author(s). In any case, proper acknowledgement of the original publication source must be made and any changes to the original work must be indicated clearly and in a manner that does not suggest the author’s and or Publisher’s endorsement whatsoever. Any other use of its content in any medium or format, now known or developed in the future, requires prior written permission of the copyright holder.
.jpg)
.jpg)
4.jpg)
4.jpg)
4.jpg)
.jpg)
