Document Type

Article

Disciplines

International Law

Abstract

If an International Oscar were awarded for the category of Best Norm, the winner by acclamation would surely be jus cogens. Who has not succumbed to its rhetorical power? Who can resist the attraction of a supernorm against which all ordinary norms of international law are mere 97-pound weaklings?

To be sure, a critic may object that jus cogens has no substantive content; it is merely an insubstantial image of a norm, lacking flesh and blood. Yet lack of content is far from disabling for a protean supernorm. Indeed, the sheer ephemerality of jus cogens is an asset, enabling any writer to christen any ordinary norm of his or her choice as a new jus cogens norm, thereby in one stroke investing it with magical power. Nor does there appear to be any limit to the number of norms that a writer may promote to the status of supernorm. Consider the gaggle of substantive norms, sharing in common their newly anointed jus cogens status, that have been collected by Karen Parker and Lyn Beth Neylon in a recent article.' These authors claim that the right to life is a norm of jus cogens, as are the prohibitions against torture and apartheid. Indeed, having attained this measure of momentum-faster than a speeding bullet-the authors end by claiming that the entire body of human rights norms are norms of jus cogens.

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