ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to clarify the role of general principles in the discursive contexts of international legal practice and theory. Many international lawyers whose ideological background is traceable to a more or less ambiguous natural law position usually regard general principles as norms. In addition to natural law principles there are also principles of international law proper which are based on positive State practice. Constructivist activity in both practice and theory consists in investing the law with evaluative and goal-rational meanings and thus carries normative consequences. Judicial decision-making is seen as a teleological activity, based on the requirements of the whole decision-context. Constructivist thought uses the normative theory of principles so as to gain better control over judicial decision-making and more explanatory force. Legal rationality seeks to ensure that the decisions reached in the judicial process are coherent with the values and goals of the legal order.
