International Law MCQs for Judiciary, Page 8

Correct answer: A. Suspension or termination by the injured party under treaty law rules

Material breach is treated seriously because it can undermine the basis of reciprocal consent. But the legal consequences still depend on the structure of the treaty and the rules governing response.

Source note: Vienna Convention treaty termination doctrine

Correct answer: A. Acted in an official capacity or used its governmental position

Attribution does not disappear merely because an organ exceeded instructions. International law looks at whether the person acted in an official character or used state authority, not only at internal legality.

Source note: ARSIWA attribution doctrine

Correct answer: A. Direction or control in the legally relevant sense

The law does not attribute private conduct to a state casually. It requires a sufficiently close connection, commonly framed in terms of direction or control, and the precise threshold depends on the legal test being applied.

Source note: ARSIWA; case law on attribution

Correct answer: B. Escape ordinary inconvenience or policy difficulty

Necessity is tightly confined. It is not a general licence to disregard obligations whenever compliance becomes costly or politically difficult; it applies only in truly exceptional circumstances.

Source note: ARSIWA necessity doctrine

Correct answer: B. Temporary, proportionate, and directed toward inducing compliance

Countermeasures are structured instruments of compliance, not revenge. Their legality depends on conditions such as prior wrongfulness by the target state, proportionality, and limits protecting certain obligations.

Source note: ARSIWA countermeasures doctrine

Correct answer: B. To the international community as a whole

The concept marks obligations of common legal concern, such as those connected to fundamental values. Their breach is not treated as a merely private matter between two states.

Source note: Barcelona Traction principle

Correct answer: A. Sending a person to a place where they face persecution or other serious prohibited harm

Non-refoulement is a core protective principle in both refugee law and broader human rights law. Its function is preventive: it aims to stop return to danger before the harm occurs.

Source note: Refugee and human rights law

Correct answer: B. Suspend every right without legal constraint

Derogation clauses are exceptional and controlled. They do not erase the distinction between derogable and non-derogable rights, nor do they give a blank cheque to the state.

Source note: Human rights treaty doctrine

Correct answer: B. A stable legal bond with any state and access to many practical protections

Nationality is not only symbolic. It often determines documentation, mobility, diplomatic protection, and access to public systems, which is why statelessness creates severe legal vulnerability.

Source note: Nationality and statelessness doctrine

Correct answer: B. Prejudicial to the peace, good order, or security of the coastal state

The concept of innocent passage balances navigation and coastal security. The focus is on the nature of the conduct during passage, not on the vessel's flag alone.

Source note: UNCLOS innocent passage regime

Correct answer: B. Customs, fiscal, immigration, and sanitary laws

The contiguous zone does not confer full sovereignty. It allows targeted enforcement-type control for specific regulatory interests listed in the law of the sea framework.

Source note: UNCLOS maritime zones

Correct answer: A. The exploration and exploitation of natural resources

The EEZ is a resource-oriented zone, not full territorial sovereignty. Other states still retain important freedoms, including navigation, subject to the coastal state's lawful rights.

Source note: UNCLOS EEZ regime

Correct answer: B. Exist by operation of law and do not depend on occupation or proclamation in the same way as territorial claims

The shelf doctrine treats these rights as inherent and legally attached to the coastal state. That does not mean there are no delimitation questions, but the basic entitlement does not arise from conquest or occupation.

Source note: Continental shelf doctrine

Correct answer: A. Navigation

The high seas are governed by freedom, not territorial sovereignty. Navigation is the most classic of these freedoms, though it remains subject to important international constraints.

Source note: Law of the sea doctrine

Correct answer: A. Environmental harm to another state

This principle links sovereignty with responsibility. A state is not free to use its territory in ways that cause serious cross-border environmental injury without regard to the rights of others.

Source note: Trail Smelter style principle; environmental law

Correct answer: B. Take reasonable preventive, regulatory, and monitoring steps in the circumstances

Due diligence is about reasonableness and prevention, not absolute perfection. The standard asks whether the state took serious and appropriate steps to control risk in light of the situation.

Source note: Environmental due diligence doctrine

Correct answer: B. Competing uses and interests of watercourse states in a fair and context-sensitive way

Shared watercourses demand balance rather than absolute control by one state. The principle asks what allocation and use are fair in light of geography, dependency, existing use, and other relevant factors.

Source note: International watercourses doctrine

Correct answer: A. Consent, impartiality, and limited use of force except in self-defence and mandate defence

Classic peacekeeping developed as a practical model distinct from both ordinary diplomacy and collective military enforcement. Its legitimacy has often rested on consent, impartiality, and restrained force.

Source note: UN peacekeeping practice

Correct answer: A. Lack of due process safeguards for listed individuals and entities

Modern sanctions practice raised serious fairness questions, especially where individuals were listed with limited notice or review. This led to greater attention to procedural safeguards and review mechanisms.

Source note: UN sanctions practice

Correct answer: B. Fall within the Court's jurisdiction yet still face a separate admissibility objection

Jurisdiction asks whether the Court has authority to hear the dispute. Admissibility addresses whether, even assuming jurisdiction, the specific claim is fit to be heard at that time and in that form.

Source note: ICJ procedure

Correct answer: A. A legal interest that may be affected by the decision

Intervention is not a free political participation device. The intervening state must show a legal interest of sufficient relevance to the case before the Court.

Source note: ICJ Statute and Rules

Correct answer: B. Intensity of violence

Not every internal disturbance is a non-international armed conflict in law. The threshold typically turns on organised parties and violence that is intense enough to move beyond riots or sporadic unrest.

Source note: IHL classification doctrine

Correct answer: A. International armed conflict, not in the same way in non-international armed conflict

The law of international armed conflict recognises a status framework for lawful combatancy. Non-international armed conflict does not mirror that structure in the same full way, which has major consequences for detention and prosecution.

Source note: IHL status doctrine

Correct answer: B. Fail to prevent or punish crimes in circumstances where international law imposes such responsibility

Command responsibility does not require that the superior be the direct hand behind every act. It addresses culpable failure to control subordinates where the legal conditions of knowledge and authority are satisfied.

Source note: International criminal law doctrine