International Law Norms Hierarchy in Applying Them and in the Rule-making Process

In the practice of states the correct application of international law is important, effectiveness of legal regulation directly depends on it. Quite often, the importance of certain norms, their hierarchy in the international legal system, and the methodology of this issue are not fully taken into account. The practical significance of assessing the hierarchy of norms lies in answering the question: which norm is or should have been applicable in a particular situation? Within the framework of international rule-making, the need to take into account the hierarchy of rules is to prevent the emergence of future conflict of laws rules. In this work, from the position of a dialectical approach, the use of general academic and special legal research methods, the main approaches to taking into account the hierarchy of international law norms in their application and the rule-making process are considered. The work shows the features inherent in various types of norms of international law, which can be used as the basis for the assessment. Particular attention is paid to assessing the hierarchy of norms when their conflicts arise, and the reasons for their appearance are investigated. Methods for resolving emerging conflicts and the legal tools used are shown. Attention is drawn to the importance of assessing the hierarchy of norms of international law in conjunction with assessing the hierarchy of homogeneous and heterogeneous sources containing such norms. The paper presents an algorithm for taking into account the hierarchy of international law norms when applying them. Cases where it is impossible to resolve collisions and the main actions in such situations are considered. Ways to counter the emergence of potential conflicts of international law in the future are presented. The complexity of the situation in international law is shown, associated with its fragmentation and the increase in the number of conflict of laws rules, their diversity, which significantly complicates the application of the rules of international law and the choice of the optimal solution. It is pointed out that solving that multifaceted problem requires a high quality of academic research and implementing modern technologies, including artificial intelligence.

hierarchy of norms, conflict of norms, international law, norms of international law, sources, international customs, international treaties, general principles of law