Non liquet

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In law, a non liquet is a situation where there is no applicable law. Non liquet translates into English from Latin as "it is not clear." ^[1] Lacuna is a similar word which means gap, and is used to indicate a gap in the law.^[2]

That is to say, a court comes to the conclusion that the situation engaged in a case has no answer from the governing system of law. This is of particular relevance to international law since international courts, be it the ICJ or ad hoc tribunals, cannot invent law to redress a lacuna. As has now become the practice, the last resort that can be taken recourse to in deciding contentious cases is the widely accepted law of civilized nations (see generally Barcelona Traction, as accepting the doctrine of estoppel as part of international law). The ex aequo et bono jurisdiction has to date never been accepted by states, and it is believed^{[citation needed]} that states would never accept it. Thus, absence of determinable international law leads to the court declaring something non liquet. But it has been argued by many^{[citation needed]} that invoking of the non liquet doctrine is opposed to the notion of law being a complete system with no loose ends anywhere to be tied. Note that municipal courts enforcing international law are not constrained to declare an area non liquet.^[3]

References

External links

• "Rice Defends Actions on Iraq Corruption", Dan Robinson, VOA news, 25 October 2007

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