Deck 13: International Law, Norms, and Human Rights

Question 1

According to many scholars, what is the central problem with international law?

A)Enforcement
B)Legislation
C)Consensus
D)Anarchy

Answer 1

A

Question 2

What does the International Court of Justice consist of?

A)10 judges, including two each from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council
B)20 judges, including one each from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council
C)A panel of 3 judges per case, including one from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council
D)15 judges, including one each from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Which of the following theoretical frameworks argues that international law is heavily biased in favor of the powerful?

A)Economic Structuralism
B)Liberalism
C)Realism
D)Imperialism

Answer 3

A

Question 4

What is the set of rules and obligations that states recognize as binding on each other called?

A)International law
B)International organizations
C)International regimes
D)International institutions

Question 5

Which of the following statements best describes the powers of the General Assembly of the United Nations?

A)The General Assembly has the right to pass legally binding resolutions.
B)The General Assembly does not have the right to pass legally binding resolutions.
C)The General Assembly has the right to decide on the placement of peacekeeping forces.
D)The General Assembly has the power of the veto.

Question 6

What of the following is true of cases in which the International Court of Justice has jurisdiction?

A)The case must involve two or more international organizations.
B)Rulings are considered final and there is no appeals process.
C)The case must involve states and non-state actors.
D)Rulings can be appealed to the Masters' Council.

Question 7

What was one of the first sources of international law that sought to regulate war?

A)The Roman Empire
B)The Catholic Church
C)The League of Nations
D)Feudal states

Question 8

What did the 1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact seek to do?

A)The pact sought to establish a punishment for those committing genocide.
B)The pact sought to establish the League of Nations.
C)The pact sought to prohibit war as an instrument of state policy.
D)The pact sought to ban specific weapons in the use of war.

Question 9

Who wrote The Law of War and Peace , and sought to produce a systematic just war theory?

A)Alexis de Tocqueville
B)St. Thomas Aquinas
C)Hugo Grotius
D)Leopold von Ranke

Question 10

Aside from reasons of self-defense, what was the other rationale that the United States and Great Britain used to support their case for the invasion of Iraq in 2003?

A)That Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and that this was a threat to the world
B)That Saddam Hussein was a bloody tyrant who had killed thousands of his own people
C)That Saddam Hussein had ignored earlier Security Council resolutions
D)That they needed to gain access to important security clearances

Question 11

Where is the International Court of Justice, unofficially referred to as World Court, based?

A)New York City, USA
B)Geneva, Switzerland
C)The Hague, Netherlands
D)London, England

Question 12

According to Grotius, which of the following is not a requirement for a war to be considered just?

A)There must be just cause to go to war.
B)A preemptive war is permissible.
C)The means used in war must not be inhumane.
D)The means used in war must be proportional to the ends obtained.

Question 13

How did the Bush Administration argue that UN resolution 1441 supported the case for the invasion of Iraq?

A)They focused particularly on the words "serious consequences".
B)They focused particularly on the words "military invasion".
C)They focused particularly on the words "a possible nuclear strike".
D)They focused particularly on the words "economic sanctions".

Question 14

The idea that rational inquiry could reveal to people what behaviors should be legal is known as which of the following?

A)Rational law
B)Collective action
C)The just war theory
D)Natural law

Question 15

The U.S. government's position that preventive war against potential nuclear proliferators was legal is known as which of the following?

A)The Colin Principle
B)The Cheney Act
C)The Bush Doctrine
D)The First-Strike Capability Principle

Question 16

What was one of the first international treaties, which focused on the conduct of war, especially in terms of the treatment of prisoners, called?

A)The Geneva Convention
B)The Maastricht Treaty
C)The Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
D)The Landmine Ban Treaty

Question 17

Which international treaty, that was signed by the major powers in 1925, banned biological and chemical weapons?

A)The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
B)The Kellogg-Briand Treaty
C)The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
D)The Geneva Protocol

Question 18

What convention against genocide was adopted by the international community following World War II?

A)The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
B)The Geneva Convention
C)The Geneva Protocol
D)The Montreal Protocol

Question 19

What did the countries that signed the 1987 Montreal Protocol agree to?

A)A ban of the use of aerosol propellants
B)To reduce annual catch limits on halibut and tuna to protect breeding grounds
C)To regulate the level of mercury released from coal fired power plants
D)To lower the level of energy consumption in the developed countries

Question 20

Which of the following is not listed as a major source of international law in Article 38 of the Charter of the International Court of Justice?

A)International custom
B)The general principles of law recognized by civilized nations
C)International conventions
D)Religious institutions

Question 21

What was the first permanent court created to deal with the prosecution of war crimes and other heinous acts?

A)International Court of Justice
B)European Court of Justice
C)International Criminal Court
D)International Military Tribunal

Question 22

An intermediate category of agreements that are not formal laws but are significant nonetheless in shaping state behavior is known as which of the following?

A)International norms
B)International law
C)International regimes
D)Treaties

Question 23

Constructivists emphasize the role played by which of the following?

A)Unions
B)Norms
C)Regimes
D)Treaties

Question 24

What was the first major global environmental treaty?

A)The Geneva Convention
B)The Maastricht Treaty
C)The Montreal Protocol
D)The Kyoto Protocol

Question 25

What is the fundamental point made by scholars of international regimes?

A)They matter only when they are written.
B)Even when they are left informal, they shape behavior.
C)They only matter when they take the form of formal treaties and shape international law.
D)They are difficult to establish and thus should matter more than other types of international laws.

Question 26

Life, liberty, property, freedom of conscience, and religion, all fall under which of Beitz's categories of human rights?

A)Community rights
B)Political rights
C)Personal rights
D)Economic and social rights

Question 27

Which theory of international relations supports the idea of the relevance of international law?

A)Economic structuralism
B)Liberalism
C)Marxism
D)Realism

Question 28

Why are states generally willing to enforce international law themselves?

A)Because more powerful states benefit the most from international law
B)Because taking the violation to the International Court of Justice is risky
C)Because they tend to benefit from international law
D)Because the United Nations enforcement process is lengthy and expensive

Question 29

The International Court of Justice can issue judicial decisions. Which body is responsible for enforcing those decisions?

A)The World Court
B)NATO
C)The United Nations
D)The states themselves

Question 30

Norms can spread through various ways. Were the World Bank to help spread the "Washington consensus" on development strategy this would be an example of which of the following?

A)Norms spreading across societies and influencing governments from the bottom up
B)Norms spreading from state to state
C)Norms spreading through international governmental organizations
D)Norms spreading through transnational groups of nongovernmental experts

Question 31

Where are the most pressing threats to international security brought forward?

A)To the World Trade Organization
B)To the International Criminal Court
C)To the United Nations Security Council
D)To the General Assembly

Question 32

Norms can spread through many ways. Which of the following is not one of the ways in which norms can spread?

A)Through international organizations
B)From state to state
C)Among transnational groups of government experts
D)Through military coercion and war

Question 33

What do those who argue against the relevance of international law suggest?

A)That international treaties and agreements simply are not important
B)That the International Court of Justice has no enforcement power whatsoever
C)That international law may at times constrain the behavior of states
D)That international law is a tool used by powerful states to control weak states

Question 34

According to many scholars, what type of period are we living in?

A)A period of increasing normative consensus
B)A period characterized by the breakdown in most international regimes dealing with human rights
C)A period of decreasing normative consensus
D)A period of insignificance for international law

Question 35

The World Trade Organization (WTO)mechanism of enforcement is perhaps the most robust piece of law enforcement outside the EU. What is the best way to describe this mechanism?

A)As complex enforcement
B)As blended enforcement
C)As a mixed- use policy
D)As state self-enforcement

Question 36

The right to a job and a minimal standard of living, fall under which of Beitz's categories of human rights?

A)Community rights
B)Political rights
C)Personal rights
D)Economic and social rights

Question 37

Norms can take many forms. Which of the following is not a form that norms take?

A)Descriptive statements about historical facts
B)Ethical principles about how actors should behave
C)Mutual expectations about how actors will behave
D)Social identities indicating which actors are legitimate

Question 38

In what way were enforcement measures strengthened in the World Trade Organization (WTO)?

A)Member states can bring their complaints to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
B)Member states are required to accept the jurisdiction of the WTO Dispute Settlement Body.
C)Member states are required to accept the jurisdiction of the UN Security Council.
D)Member states can use protectionist measures to punish other member states.

Question 39

Which of the following statements is false?

A)The Westphalian system assumes that states control their own territory and citizens.
B)Human rights assume that rights are universal; however, a universal duty to protect is not assumed.
C)The Westphalian system assumes a territorial segmentation of authority.
D)Human rights assume that people have rights that states cannot deny and must protect.

Question 40

The 1948 document that includes a range of inalienable rights that every individual possesses is known as which of the following?

A)The Geneva Conventions
B)The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
C)The Maastricht Treaty
D)The European Convention on Human Rights

Question 41

Any person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country is considered to be which of the following?

A)A migrant
B)An undocumented citizen
C)A refugee
D)An emigré

Question 42

In order to be able to immigrate permanently to a new state, what must a refugee claim?

A)Asylum
B)Sanctuary
C)Displacement
D)Discrimination

Question 43

Which of the following statements is true about human security?

A)Human security stresses that the proper object of security is the individual, not the state.
B)Human security is central to traditional international relations.
C)For most of the world's people, the biggest threat to their lives is from an attack from another country.
D)The United National Security Council shifted their focus to human security as part of the Maastricht Treaty.

Question 44

The principle that the International Criminal Court will only take on cases in which domestic criminal courts are either unable or unwilling to get involved in is known as which of the following?

A)Segmentation
B)Complementarity
C)The exclusionary rule
D)The habeas corpus provision

Question 45

According to the UN High Commission for Refugees, approximately how many refugees were there in the world in 2019?

A)5 million
B)10 million
C)25 million
D)50 million

Question 46

Why do some believe that the International Criminal Court (ICC)has transcended the traditional notion of international law as "law among nations"?

A)They believe it will be very successful.
B)It was formed by an agreement among states, but state governments are not represented at the Court.
C)It has already made great strides with regard to the improvement of human rights in the Third World.
D)The Court had success in the trial of Slobodan Milosevic.

Question 47

The notion of war crimes first developed as a result of which war?

A)World War I
B)World War II
C)Korean War
D)Vietnam War

Question 48

What is the goal for many refugees?

A)To return home
B)To become terrorists
C)To try to bring Shari'a law to their host state
D)To maintain permanent refugee status

Question 49

Which of the following countries has not signed the International Criminal Court treaty?

A)The United States
B)Australia
C)France
D)Slovenia

Question 50

Why did China choose not to sign the International Criminal Court treaty?

A)Because the US signed the treat
B)Because the US failed to sign the treaty
C)Because it was concerned about charges stemming from its treatment of Tibetan and Uighur minorities
D)Because it was concerned about charges relation to its occupation of islands in the South China Sea

Question 51

Which of the following is true regarding military intervention in human rights issues?

A)Intervention is never carried out in the contemporary system.
B)Cases where intervention does not occur are never controversial.
C)All agree that intervention is illegal under international law.
D)Intervention is the most controversial aspect of the human rights debate today.

Question 52

How have international norms against the death penalty affected the U.S. Supreme Court?

A)The international movement against the death penalty was cited by the Court as one reason for banning the execution of juveniles.
B)International norms do not affect the Supreme Court.
C)International norms have caused the Supreme Court to ban the death penalty.
D)International norms were cited by the Court as one reason for banning lethal injection.

Question 53

Which of the following illegal actions would not be considered a war crime?

A)Willful killing
B)Torture
C)Unlawful deportation
D)Hate speech

Question 54

Where are the largest groups of refugees located today?

A)In the Middle East and in Southwest Asia
B)In Southeast Asia and in sub-Saharan Africa
C)In sub-Saharan Africa and in South America
D)In South and Central America

Question 55

Which of the following is not one of the types of crimes over which the International Criminal Court has jurisdiction?

A)Genocide
B)Economic discrimination
C)Crimes against humanity
D)War crimes

Question 56

What was the refusal of the United States to sign the International Criminal Court (ICC)treaty primarily based on?

A)Its belief that the ICC has too much power
B)Its belief that the ICC is impotent
C)Its belief that the ICC is dominated by countries associated with the "Axis of Evil"
D)Its belief that the ICC might be used as a political tool against the United States

Question 57

What are the "ethnic cleansing" campaigns of the wars in the former Yugoslavia and the Rwandan genocide of 1994 both examples of?

A)Guerilla war
B)War crimes
C)Unjust war
D)Population control efforts

Question 58

Which category of criminal action focuses on atrocities committed during armed conflicts?

A)Racial hatred
B)Ethnic tensions
C)War crimes
D)Human rights abuse

Question 59

What is the most innovative feature of the International Criminal Court?

A)That its primary focus is individuals
B)That its primary focus is states
C)That its primary focus is ethnic groups
D)That its primary focus is international organizations

Question 60

Which of the following treaties guarantees the right to participate in free trade unions and to gain an education?

A)The Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
B)The Montreal Protocol
C)The Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights
D)The Treaty of Portsmouth

Question 61

Explain the structure of the International Court of Justice. What are the types of cases on which it passes legal judgment? What are its primary strengths and weaknesses?

Question 62

What are the basic principles of Grotius's just war theory? Under what circumstances is a war just? Discuss whether a current international conflict is just.

Question 63

How does the case of the death penalty represent the spread of an international norm?

Question 64

How exactly is the debate over universal human rights changing the current international norm of nonintervention? Why might certain actors assert the Westphalian system is indeed ripe for change? Why might others oppose intervention in support of human rights protection? Give at least two examples of cases in which this debate caused tension in the global community.

Question 65

Why might a country choose not to sign an international treaty? Discuss the reasons that the U.S. and China chose not to sign the International Criminal Court treaty. What does it mean for the Court that the two most influential states in the current world order failed to sign the treaty?

Question 66

How does international law differ from domestic law? Discuss the main differences, providing an example or two to help illustrate the major differences.

Question 67

How do the proponents of the major international relations treaties view international law? Which explanation do you believe is most on point?

Question 68

What are the three main sources of international law? Which do you think has the biggest impact on making the world we live in today? Which type is hardest to enforce?

Question 69

Discuss the features of the International Criminal Court. What are its distinctive features? What are its primary challenges?

Question 70

The United States invaded Iraq twice: in 1990 and in 2003. What were the main differences in the circumstances that resulted in these invasions?