ABSTRACT
Mainstream accounts of the principles governing the formation and application of rules of customary international law typically include reference to the principle of the "persistent objector." This chapter shows that despite these qualities, the principle of the persistent objector has played a very limited role in the legal relations of states. It also shows that the contemporary process of law-creation in the international system differs importantly from the classical customary international law process. The chapter suggests that the contemporary process of law-making in international affairs has several characteristics that may promote increasingly frequent and effective resort to the principle of the persistent objector in the future. It considers the principle of the persistent objector a basis for exempting a dissenting state from an otherwise generally applicable rule of customary international law. The paucity of empirical referents for the persistent objector principle is striking.
