Peremptory norms

Looseheadprop has been doing a great series on torture and the law at Firedoglake. The 17th post is up today, discussing jus cogens. You will find a discussion of "eight categories of rights that ALL people regardless of nationality, rank or other status are born with." Check it out.

Of that legal term, Wikipedia has this:

A peremptory norm (also called jus cogens or ius cogens, Latin for "compelling law") is a fundamental principle of international law which is accepted by the international community of states as a norm from which no derogation is ever permitted.

There is no clear agreement regarding precisely which norms are jus cogens — or indeed how a norm reaches the status of jus cogens — but it is generally accepted that jus cogens includes the prohibition of genocide, piracy, slaving in general (to include slavery as well as the slave trade), torture, and wars of aggression and territorial aggrandizement.

--the BB