Document Type : Research Paper

Author

• Mahdi Haddadi

Associate Professor, International Law, Farabi Campus, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Conventional and customary rules both play a decisive role in regulating international relations. Basically, every legal rule needs interpretation during implementation. However, contrary to the treaty, not only the ritual and method of interpretation have not been regulated regarding the customary rules, but also arguments have been raised in the direction of the impossibility of its interpretation. Including, only written rules can be interpreted, secondly, the identification of customary rules is the only operation that determines its content. This article examines the correctness of these two arguments with a descriptive-analytical method, and through examining the doctrine and judicial procedure, and finally introduces the methods of interpretation of customary rules. The result of this research is that interpretation, which requires research into the meaning of a legal act, is equally possible regarding written and unwritten rules. On the other hand, attention should be paid to the special distinction between identifying the customary rule and determining its content. Finally, the methods of interpretation of the treaty can be applied by applying the necessary changes to the interpretation of customary rules, as is the case with some sources of international law.

Keywords

• Custom
• treaty
• interpretation
• identification of custom
• methods of interpretation

Main Subjects

• International Law