Introduction

International law has a credibility issue. And it is grounded in its very foundations, the use of its "non-treaty" sources, customary international law, and general principles of law, as rhetorical gap fillers to push the progressive development of international law. Normative efforts in international law must be grounded on a dogmatically sound assessment of the legal status quo. The issue must be confronted at an abstract level by taking a step back and reassessing the teachings of "mainstream" doctrine in light of the cast of actors of international law. For the classic voluntarist as well as the empiricist, customary international law is essentially grounded in the behavior of states. A well-known trade-off in international law is compliance on the grounds of reciprocal obligation. Karl Zemanek has called for "mehr Realismus und Wahrheit", "more realism and truth", in the scholarship of international law. This is the immediate goal and, in itself, an added value.