CODIFICATION AND PROGRESSIVE DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNATIONAL CUSTOMS LAW

Abstract

International customs law and national customs law have coexisted for long time as interconnected and complementary sets of rules of conduct, that are used by participants of customs relations to meet their needs. However, in the context of universal recognition of the supremacy of international customs law over national customs law, scientists pay almost no attention to its study. This concern to its various aspects, including codification and progressive development. The legal characterization of the codification and progressive development of international customs law is of interest both to scientists, who study various theoretical and practical aspects of national customs and international customs law, students, studying the same subjects, and to participants of customs relations, who rely on principles and norms of national customs law and international customs law. Therefore, the article analyzes the doctrinal approaches to understanding the codification and progressive development of general international law, and also proposes the author's vision of codification and the progressive development of international customs law and the final forms of consolidation of its results. According to the results of the research, it is claimed that the codification and progressive development of international customs law is characterized by a partial, substantively determined nature. Along with the states and other subjects of international customs law, some scientists and research institutions also can participate in the implementation of its codification and progressive development. Independently of the quantitative and representative membership, this activity can only be official. The main summary form of the legal consolidation of the results of the codification and progressive development of international customs law are general international treaties (conventions) of a universal nature, which can be understood as written multilateral agreements that relate to general principles and norms of international customs law or related to issues, which are interesting for subjects of international customs law. In the same time with the general international conventions of a universal nature, various kinds of acts «soft law» can be used for this purpose, the most known of them are the resolutions and declarations of international organizations and the closing acts of international conferences.