#25 - Global, Must Be True, Author's and Subject Perspective

[Administrator]

Please post your questions below! Thank you!

[theamazingrace]

I was stuck between B and D. Is B wrong because of the word "proven"? Even though the last paragraph talks about how negotiations rather than international court decisions are the principal means of resolving international environmental disputes does not prove negations to be more effective. Is this right?

Thanks

[Robert Carroll]

Grace,

Remember that the question is asking for something that the scholars and the author both agree on. As you pointed out, the last paragraph is the part of the passage that talks about direct negotiations. But that's the author saying that. There is no indication that the scholars think or even realize that. In fact, the paragraph starts out by saying that the scholars are "misdirecting their efforts." So these claims about negotiations are not coming from the scholars but instead are claims the author is making. And the author is making those claims in part to try to suggest that the scholars could do their jobs better if they were aware of these facts. We cannot assume the scholars agree - there is a strong indication that the scholars don't even know this yet, and should pay attention to it and learn more about it to do their jobs better.

Robert Carroll

[silver2731]

Hi,

Could you explain how C and D are different? I thought the answer should be regarding what can be qualified/considered as the norm of customary international law both answers seem to be pointing out the same thing to me.

Is it that it countries are already proven to not act in accordance with the principle?

[Robert Carroll]

silver2731,

The middle of the second paragraph tells us that the standard for whether principles count as norms is whether nations abide by them in practice. Answer choice (C) makes the standard instead whether it's easy for us to tell whether they abide by them. That something is difficult to ascertain doesn't mean it doesn't exist - there is a large difference between the two. One could think of an analogy: let's say I'm assigned a task like sweeping the floors. Unless a floor is very dirty, it can be pretty difficult to tell whether I've done my task - a swept floor often looks much the same as an unswept floor, unless the unswept floor was pretty filthy. So, the principle by which one can judge whether I've done my task is whether I've swept the floor. It may be difficult to tell whether I've done so, but that doesn't mean I haven't done what I was supposed to. The difference between doing the floors and easily showing that I've done the floors is the same as the difference between answer choices (D) and (C).

Robert Carroll