Free International Law MCQs with Answers

127 International Law MCQs from International Relations, each with the correct answer and a written explanation of why it is correct. Free and unlimited, with no account needed.

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127 questions · page 3 of 7

  • A. They have defined the nature of legitimate statehood
  • B. Legal instruments have given it a code ethics, and a universal standard of order
  • C. They have clarified the bounds of rightful state action, international and domestic
  • D. a and c

Explanation: International legal instruments establish standards for legitimate statehood and distinguish lawful from unlawful state conduct, both…

Correct answer: a and c
  • A. They tend to be bound by the policies of states
  • B. They are limited to the scope of the legislation at hand
  • C. They are rhetorical as well as logical
  • D. b and c

Explanation: International legal arguments must work within the relevant legal rules while also persuading an audience, so they combine legal reasoning…

Correct answer: b and c
  • A. The idea that legal rules have legitimacy when from their logical and practical derivation form a fundamental 'grundnorm'
  • B. The idea that natural law is no different than positive law, and that they are interdependent
  • C. The idea that authority of legal rules comes from their status as the commands of a sovereign authority
  • D. a and c

Explanation: Legal positivism locates the validity of law in humanly created authority rather than morality or natural law.

Correct answer: a and c
  • A. The school where the realist approach to international law was conformed
  • B. It is also known as the policy approach
  • C. It is also known as the legal internationalism approach
  • D. It borrows from positivism and naturalism

Explanation: The New Haven School is commonly called the policy-oriented approach because it evaluates international law in relation to…

Correct answer: It is also known as the policy approach
  • A. States
  • B. Individuals
  • C. Both
  • D. None of these

Explanation: States remain the primary subjects of international law, but modern international law also gives individuals rights and duties, especially…

Correct answer: Both
  • A. Hague (Netherlands)
  • B. New York (USA)
  • C. Paris (France)
  • D. Geneva

Explanation: The International Court of Justice is based in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands.

Correct answer: Hague (Netherlands)
  • A. General Assembly only
  • B. Security Council only
  • C. Security-General of the UN
  • D. General Assembly and Security Council

Explanation: ICJ judges are elected separately but concurrently by the UN General Assembly and Security Council, with an absolute majority required in…

Correct answer: General Assembly and Security Council
  • A. 35
  • B. 25
  • C. 15
  • D. 20

Explanation: The ICJ consists of 15 judges, each elected for a renewable nine-year term by the General Assembly and Security Council.

Correct answer: 15
  • A. A principal judicial organ of the UN
  • B. A Court established by States outside the UN System
  • C. A Court established by the European Community
  • D. None of these

Explanation: The ICJ is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations and serves as its main judicial body.

Correct answer: A principal judicial organ of the UN
  • A. A no-man's land between two State
  • B. An area of sea beyond territorial waters:
  • C. An area of sea beyond the Exclusive Economic Zone
  • D. None of these

Explanation: The contiguous zone is the belt of sea beyond the territorial sea, extending up to 24 nautical miles from the coastal state's baselines.

Correct answer: An area of sea beyond territorial waters:
  • A. Invalidates the treaty
  • B. Treaty cannot be invoked before a UN organ
  • C. It has no effect at all on the treaty
  • D. None of these

Explanation: Under Article 102 of the UN Charter, an unregistered treaty remains valid between its parties but cannot be invoked before a UN organ.

Correct answer: Treaty cannot be invoked before a UN organ
  • A. A State may terminates treaty because of a material breach
  • B. A State may invokes fundamental change of circumstance to terminate/suspend a treaty
  • C. A treaty stands terminated because of the eruption of hostilities
  • D. None of these

Explanation: Rebus sic stantibus permits a state to invoke an unforeseen fundamental change of circumstances as a limited ground for terminating…

Correct answer: A State may invokes fundamental change of circumstance to terminate/suspend a treaty
  • A. A peremptory norm of International Law that cannot be derogated from by mutual consent
  • B. A State can terminate a treaty because of violation of its domestic law
  • C. A treaty stands terminated when its purpose is achieved
  • D. None of these

Explanation: Jus cogens refers to peremptory norms of international law, such as the prohibitions on genocide and slavery, from which no state may…

Correct answer: A peremptory norm of International Law that cannot be derogated from by mutual consent
  • A. 200 nautical miles
  • B. 12 nautical miles
  • C. 100 nautical miles
  • D. None of these

Explanation: Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, a coastal state’s exclusive economic zone may extend up to 200 nautical miles from the…

Correct answer: 200 nautical miles
  • A. 1948
  • B. 1958
  • C. 1975
  • D. 1982Compare Local Schools

Explanation: The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea was adopted and opened for signature at Montego Bay, Jamaica, in 1982.

Correct answer: 1982Compare Local Schools
  • A. London Declaration in 1941
  • B. Moscow & Teheran Conference in 1943
  • C. San Francisco Conference in 1945
  • D. None of these

Explanation: The Statute of the International Court of Justice was drawn up at the San Francisco Conference in 1945 as part of the UN Charter…

Correct answer: San Francisco Conference in 1945
  • A. 12 nautical miles
  • B. 18 nautical miles
  • C. 24 nautical miles
  • D. None of these

Explanation: UNCLOS permits a contiguous zone extending beyond the territorial sea up to 24 nautical miles from the coastal state’s baselines.

Correct answer: 24 nautical miles
  • A. an island within 3 nautical miles from the coast of a country
  • B. an island no the high seas, which is not the territory of any particular state
  • C. a ship bearing the national flag of a state
  • D. None of these

Explanation: In the traditional floating-island analogy, a ship on the high seas is treated as linked to the state whose flag it flies, rather than as…

Correct answer: a ship bearing the national flag of a state
  • A. Starlm
  • B. Pufendoxf
  • C. Hugo Grotius
  • D. Oppenheim

Explanation: Hugo Grotius is widely called the father of international law because his work, especially On the Law of War and Peace, systematised rules…

Correct answer: Hugo Grotius
  • A. to obtain raw material
  • B. Armed attack
  • C. to ensure the protection of human rights
  • D. None of these

Explanation: Article 51 of the UN Charter preserves a state's inherent right of self-defence if an armed attack occurs, subject to necessity…

Correct answer: Armed attack