Textbooks on international law, dicta of the International Court of Justice
and the International Law Commission’s ‘Guiding Principles applicable
to unilateral declarations of states capable of creating legal obligations’ of
2006, all reflect the fact that in international law a state’s unilateral declaration
can create a legally binding obligation. Unilateral declarations are
common, as a look at the weekly headlines of any major newspaper will
reveal. Many of the declarations made at the highest level are, of course,
vaguely expressed and carry no tangible legal commitment. But others
deliver a very clear message: for instance the US’s April 2010 declaration
on its future use of nuclear weapons or Kosovo’s declaration of independence
and pledge to follow the Ahtisaari Plan, are two recent and prominent
examples of unilateral declarations at the international level.
The same sources, however, also reveal that while state promises are
accepted as a means for states to create full blown legal commitments,
the law governing such declarations is far from clear. This monograph
fills a gap in international legal scholarship by raising and answering the
question of the precise legal value of such pledges in the realm of public
international law.