Conclusion

TL;DRAbstract

The present study began by noting two dominant features of the on-going debate about obligations erga omnes: (i) the strong views provoked by the concept, and (ii) the lack of agreement about basic issues. Having addressed some of these basic issues, one can hardly avoid the conclusion that the former are the main source of the latter. Throughout the present study, strong feelings about the obligations erga omnes concept have resurfaced in the form of assertion or legal argument. If the concept is still 'very mysterious indeed', this is largely due to hopes and fears that commentators project onto it, and that often stand – to borrow a comment on an equally mysterious area of international law (namely recognition) – 'like a bank of fog on a still day, between the observer and the contours of the ground which calls for investigation'. Three different fog banks (or myths) have been encountered throughout the preceding chapters, and need to be briefly commented on: the idealist myth, the

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