Different ways through which States create International law

There are different ways through which States create International law. International conventions mentioned under article 38(1) are referred to as treaties/conventions/pacts etc. Treaties may be bilateral (between two states) or multilateral (between more than two states) and are a product of long negotiations between the States. Once a state has signified its consent, it is bound by its terms vis-à-vis all other parties to that treaty. Thus, treaties are only binding and impose obligations on those states that have ratified it.

Treaties can be further categorized into three types:

Law making treaties;
Constituent treaties and
Codifying treaties