Private law and general principles of public international law

Association of States national law with international law may be found in the formation of the general principles of law recognised by civilised nations and in applicable law clauses of State contracts. The general principles of law, one of the sources of international law under Article 38(1) of the ICJ Statute, are drawn by the creative task of the international judge from the legal system of the great majority of States, provided they are uniformly applied and felt as obligatory and necessary also on the point of view of international law. There has been a phase of relations between private parties and States in the field of economic development agreements where State contracts have been denationalised by making them subject to general principles of law recognised by civilised nations or just to general principles or to a combination of such principles with the State s national law. Applicable law clauses of this kind have been differently interpreted and applied by a number of historical arbitral decisions. The subsequent phase of relations is marked by the progressive recovery of sovereignty by developing States with the end of the denationalisation of State contracts, as shown by the reference by Article 42(1) of the Washington Convention of 1965 to both the host State s national law and international law.