Les coordonnées juridiques du principe du Lotus

Robert Kolb

This contribution aims at discussing certain aspects of the so-called Lotus-Principle, which holds that absent an obligation under international law States enjoy a general freedom to act. The discussion turns first on the exact configuration of the principle within international law, for example in the context of determining at what point international law can be said to not contain a prohibition, the issue of strong and weak permissions, the territorial and extraterritorial reach of the freedom to act, etc. In the last part, a longer section dissects the commonalities and differences between two structurally closely related principles, namely the Lotus and the reserved domain (internal affairs).