ABSTRACT
The re-exploration of fundamental questions concerning the legal order is important, not merely for its own sake, but in fairness to the succession of generations through whom knowledge and understanding must be transmitted. Recent contributions to the problem of non liquet are essentially of this nature. The reference to 'the general principles of law recognised by civilised nations' in Article 38 (1) (c) incorporated into international law 'the principle of the completeness of the legal order' as one of these 'general principles'. 'The prohibition of non liquet', Sir Hersch Lauterpacht contends, 'constitutes one of the most undisputably established rules of positive international law as evidenced by an uninterrupted continuity of international arbitral and judicial practice. Sir Hersch's view of the role which an international judge must attribute to considerations of justice or adequacy of the rules in deciding what rule to apply in a given case has, at first sight, great attractiveness.
