International law

The twenty-fifth entry is parecer consultivo, and its English name, « an advisory opinion », is much weaker in ordinary usage than it is in law. Away from a court, « an opinion » is what anybody has: a private view, held on no authority, worth exactly what the person holding it is worth, and introduced with « in my opinion » as a way of softening what follows. Inside a court the same noun is the ruling. « The opinion of the court » is the reasoned decision itself; a judge who disagrees writes « a dissenting opinion » and it is published beside the majority; and a barrister asked to advise writes « an opinion » and charges a fee for it. So a reader who meets « an advisory opinion » and hears a suggestion has halved the thing. The document is a full reasoned statement of the law, settled by the whole court after argument, and what « advisory » takes away is only the binding force on the parties — never the authority of the reasoning, which is why o parecer consultivo is quoted for decades afterwards.