The Role of Imperative International Norms in Strengthening the International Legal System

The recognition of the existence of mandatory international rules under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of 1969 is a recognition of the existence of a hierarchy among international legal rules, those rules that have remained for a long time characterized by a horizontal hierarchy even in the presence of Article 38 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice, which has produced numerous problems regarding the conflict between multiple sources and a single source, and the impact of those rules on the unity of the legal system has been such that they have created rules that are superior to others. Mandatory rules also have the same effect on Security Council resolutions, as those resolutions may not violate a mandatory rule, otherwise they will be invalidated.