some concluding remarks - Project on International Courts and ...

920 INTERNATIONAL LAW AND POLITICS [Vol. 31:919strive to demonstrate—in the form of variations on the themeof unity and diversity in law.A. Unity of Legal Thought and Diversity of Legal OrdersWhen we speak of contract, responsibility, or a judicial organ,these terms convey to us, whatever our legal backgrounds,a certain common generic idea (but I insist on “generic”).There is, then, a certain unity or commonality of legal thoughtamong all the inhabitants of the legal universe. But at thesame time, there is also diversity of legal orders. It is alwaysamusing when respectable jurists, including the current Presidentof the International Court of Justice, in order to reachthe conclusion that private contracts with governments can belifted to the international level, argue that they are governedby the principle of pacta sunt servanda, which, they emphaticallyadd, is a principle of international law. But pacta suntservanda is a general principle of law existing in all legal orders.By itself, it does not tell us anything specific about theapplicable law. Such common concepts and general principlesare incarnated and managed in different ways, yieldingdifferent outcomes, in different legal orders.B. Unity of Legal Order and Diversity of TribunalsEvery legal order has its own frontiers that separate itfrom other legal orders, because it has a different basis of legitimacyand different mechanisms for creating, applying, andenforcing its rules. In other words, every legal order generatesand specifies its rules in different ways, with different results,and these rules and procedures ultimately derive their legitimacyfrom the fact of belonging to this legal order. It constitutesa unicum: an entity held together by its own internal cohesiveforces, while remaining separate and distinguishablefrom other legal orders. Yet within each legal order (except,perhaps, for the very primitive ones, which can be assimilatedto unicellular living organisms), there exists a multitude of organscharged with the implementation and application of law,including a diversity of courts and tribunals (the type andnumber of which differing from one legal order to another).