Jus Cogens in Recent Legal Scholarship

Abstract This chapter evaluates recent legal scholarship on jus cogens. Writers continue to discuss and debate the origins and sources of jus cogens. In addition, they devote increasing attention to the specific norms proposed for such status. The prohibition of enforced disappearance, for example, has been recognized in writings as a norm of jus cogens. Other specific norms proposed include the prohibition of torture; the principle of non-refoulement; the prohibition of crimes against humanity; the prohibition of apartheid and racial discrimination; the prohibition of slavery; and the right of self-determination. The jus cogens status of basic rules of humanitarian law is also generally recognized in the literature.