In this book, Cheng aims to inquire into the practical application of the general principles of law by international courts and tribunals.

The municipal codes of well over a dozen countries expressly provide for the application of the general principles of law in the absence of specific legal provisions or of custom, and the Statute of the International Court of Justice stipulates that 'the general principles of law recognised by civilised nations' constitute one of the sources of international law to be applied by the Court; but the exact meaning and scope of this section of the Statute have always been a subject of controversy amongst international lawyers. In this printing of his classic 1953 work, Professor Bin Cheng inquires into the practical application of these principles by international courts and tribunals since the beginning of modern international arbitration with the Jay Treaty of 1794, and presents them as a coherent body of fundamental principles that in fact furnish the international legal system with its juridical basis. Citations from nearly 600 international arbitral and judicial decisions amply testify to the role of these principles in the international legal system and illustrate their application in practically every important field of international law.

Foreword Georg Schwarzenberger
Preface
Tables
Abbreviations
Introduction
Part I. The Principle of Self-Preservation: Introductory
1. Territorial application of the principle
2. External application of the principle
Part II. The Principle of Good Faith: Introductory
3. Good faith in treaty relations
4. Good faith in the exercise of rights (the theory of abuse of rights)
5. Other applications of the principle
Part III. General Principles of Law in the Concept of Responsibility: 6. General notions
7. The principle of individual responsibility
8. The principle of fault
9. The principle of integral reparation
10. The principle of proximate causality
Part IV. General Principles of Law in Judicial Proceedings: Introductory
11. Jurisdiction
12. Power to determine the extent of jurisdiction (competence de la competence)
13. Nemo debet esse judex in propria sua causa
14. Audiatur et altera pars
15. Jura novit curia
16. Proof and burden of proof
17. The principle of res judicata
18. Extinctive prescription
Conclusions
Appendices
Index.