Senior Research Fellow, Charalampos Giannakopoulos, contributed a chapter on “Indicators of Coherence and the Interpretation of CIL”, in the edited volume Customary International Law and Its Interpretation by International Courts: Theories, Methods and Interactions published by Cambridge University Press. The chapter argues that it is possible and indeed necessary to strive towards coherence in the interpretation of customary international law, once coherence is understood as a concept having a substantive and a methodological dimension. Coherence is more than a simple goal or ideal. It is also a method of constructing one’s reasoning and of deliberating about one’s interpretative choices. The chapter identifies three interdependent mental processes in this respect—framing, contextualising, and iteration/reflexivity—which can serve as indicators of the coherence or incoherence of proposed customary international law interpretations.

This publication is part of the TRICI-Law series and was created in collaboration with PluriCourts and the TLS department of the University of Groningen. It is available on open access here.