The space occupied by international law in shaping political action is subject to continuing debate and controversy. This book aims to answer the question of how and why international law impacts the behaviour of actors on the international stage in the absence of central authority and faced with asymmetric power. At a time when the role of normative restraints in international relations, and international law in particular, has come under renewed questioning, it advances an analytical framework for understanding the effect of norms on behaviour that is not contingent on material restraints or a given political constellation, while being informed by the practical realities and practice of international organisation. In doing so, this book draws on an interdisciplinary range of sources, including international law, political theory, cognitive psychology and behavioural economics to explore a communicative action-based approach of how norms and ideas persuade actors to engage in a course of action consonant with international law to achieve a particular outcome. In probing the role of norms on questions such as the use of force and accountability, and issues of equity and justice, it examines the challenges international law faces and what the way forward may look like.
Author(s): Alain Germeaux
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 501
City: Cham
Preface
Acknowledgements
Contents
About the Author
Acronyms
Table of case law
Table of Legislation
Table of Treaties and International Instruments
1 Introduction
1 International Law and Political Science
2 International Law in Explanatory Schemes for Social Action
Notes
2 The State of the Art
1 The Storyline of International Law and Politics
1.1 The Emergence of Positivism
1.2 The Enduring Legacy of Realism
1.3 The Behavioural Revolution
1.4 The English School
1.5 The New Haven School
1.6 How Nations Behave
1.7 Critical Legal Studies
1.8 Regime Theory
1.9 Institutionalism
1.10 Constructivism
1.11 The Power of Legitimacy
1.12 The Ethics of Human Rights
1.13 International Legal Process
1.14 Enforcement Theory
1.15 Transnational Legal Process
1.16 Liberal Theory
1.17 Feminist International Law and International Relations Theory
1.18 Transcivilisational Perspectives on International Law
2 How is International Law Relevant?
2.1 The Realist View
2.2 Institutionalism and The Economic Analysis of Law
2.3 Fairness and Legitimacy in the International System
2.4 Constructivism in International Law
3 Why and How Norms and Interest Matter
Notes
3 The Role of Law in International Relations
1 Methodology
1.1 Communicative Action and Rationality
1.2 Experimental, Quantitative, and Qualitative-Empirical Approaches in Social Science
2 Different Conceptions of Law in the International System
2.1 International Law as Restraint
2.2 International Law as Framework for Communicative Action
2.2.1 International Law as Instrument for Justification
2.2.2 Intersubjective Understandings in International Law
2.2.3 International Law and Communicative Action
3 Anarchy and Power Asymmetry in International Law
3.1 Communicative Action and the Logics of Anarchy
3.1.1 The “Anarchy Problématique” and the “Common Lifeworld”
3.1.2 Three Logics of Social Interaction
3.1.3 Hobbes and the State of Permanent Conflict
3.1.4 Locke and the Logic of Rivalry
3.1.5 Kant and the Logic of Friendship
3.1.6 The Common Lifeworld and Logics of Interaction
3.2 International Law and Power Asymmetries
3.2.1 Ideal Speech Situations and Power Asymmetries
3.2.2 External Legal Policy and Power Relations
3.2.3 International Law as Instrument of Power
3.2.4 Withdrawal from International Law
3.2.5 Reshaping International Law
3.2.6 Extraterritorial Application of Domestic Law
3.2.7 Power Politics and the Paradox of Hegemony
Notes
4 International Law and the Use of Force
1 Bringing Force Under International Law
1.1 The Rise and Fall of the League of Nations
1.2 Restraining Force Under the UN Charter
2 Self-Defence
2.1 Self-Defence in International Law
2.2 Pre-emptive Self-Defence?
2.3 The Determination of the ‘Armed Attack’ Requirement
2.4 Self-Defence Beyond the Charter Paradigm?
2.5 Necessity, Proportionality and the Burden of Justification
3 From Humanitarian Intervention to the Responsibility to Protect
3.1 Turning Rights into Responsibilities
3.2 Implementing the Responsibility to Protect
3.3 Responsibility to Protect or Duty to Prevent?
4 A System of Collective Security
4.1 Law and Politics in the UN Security Council
4.2 The United Nations and the Collective Legitimation of the Use of Force
4.3 The Unilateral Approach to Using Force
5 Legal Argumentation and the Use of Force
Notes
5 The International Criminal Court
1 Towards an International Criminal Court
1.1 The Travaux Préparatoires
1.2 The Rome Statute
1.3 Law and Politics in the ICC Negotiations
1.4 Defining the Crime of Aggression
1.5 The Crime of Aggression Amendments
2 Ideas and Power Politics in International Criminal Law
2.1 The Role of the UN Security Council
2.2 The Role of International Law and Institutions
2.3 Logics of Interaction in Negotiating the ICC
2.4 Law and Politics in the Crime of Aggression
3 From Ideas to Reality: Upholding Universality and Integrity of the Rome Statute
3.1 Upholding the Jurisdictional Reach of the ICC
3.2 Interest, Norms and Ideas in Compliance with International Agreements
3.3 Withdrawing from International Criminal Law?
4 Expanding the Reach of International Criminal Justice
4.1 The Prerogative to Initiate Investigations
4.2 Jurisdiction and the Consent Principle
4.3 Positive Complementarity
5 International Criminal Law and International Relations
Notes
6 Conclusion
1 International Law in Global Governance
2 The Way Forward
Notes
References
Index
