General Principles of Law: The Gentle Guardians of Systemic Integration of International Law

There are different meanings and functions of what is called a “general principle of law.” This article seeks to address their importance as the basis for the systemic integration of the international legal order. When international law is considered as a legal system, its normative unity and completeness seems essential. This article argues that general principles of law are a necessary, although less visible, element of international legal practice and reasoning, which secure the systemic integration and longlasting underpinnings of international law. In this sense they may be seen as the gentle guardians of international law as a legal system.