ABSTRACT
The relationship between general international law (GIL) and international human rights law (IHRL) is a complex narrative of tension, evolution and juxtaposition. IHRL and its strong proponents the ‘human rightists’ have been criticised for separatist tendencies and single-mindedness, ‘human rights triumphalism’, and a lack of understanding that it is a ‘subbranch’ of international law subject to the latter’s rules and methodology. This chapter will explore some key issues for the relationship in three main sections: the foundation principles of the relationship; the constraints upon human rights by GIL; and the pushing and enlarging of the disciplinary boundaries of international law by human rights. It examines the real or perceived foundations of the relationship between GIL and IHRL. At a broad level, GIL and ‘special regimes’ such as IHRL are cast in a unitary relationship and not one characterised by fragmentation.
