ABSTRACT
This chapter will provide an exemplary cross-section of the uncertainties in the law on customary international law-making, the meta-law of customary international law. Uncertainty of customary international law mainly manifests itself in doctrinal disputes. States usually do not publish their abstract views on how international law is made. Judicial decisions, such as the judgments of the International Court of Justice, are concerned primarily with solving the dispute the parties have put before them and tailor their response to that task. The range of uncertainty will be demonstrated by emphasising the argumentative structure of jurists’ writing, since our understanding of a concept of law is based to a large extent on what other lawyers before us have said, not on any objective ‘proof’. It is not intended to show the range and structure of the argument comprehensively, but exemplarily.
