scholarly journals 2000–2020: twenty years later, where are we in terms of the unity of international law?

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-23
Author(s):  
Pierre-Marie Dupuy
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Legal Order ◽  
Public International Law ◽  
International Legal Order ◽  
The Hague ◽  
Peremptory Norms ◽  
International Rule

Twenty years have passed since the author's delivery in 2000 of the general course of public international law at the Hague Academy of International Law, titled ‘The Unity of the International Legal Order’. That course was designed to combat the all-too-common idea that international law was in the process of ‘fragmentation’. It did so by developing a theory focused on the existence of and tension between two forms of unity in the international legal order: the formal unity (concerning the procedures by which primary norms are created and interpreted, and their non-compliance adjudicated) and the material unity (based on the content of certain norms of general international law, peremptory norms). Twenty years later, the time is ripe to revisit this theory to determine the extent to which it is still valid as a framework for the analysis of international law, particularly as an increasing number of ‘populist’ leaders very much seem to ignore, or voluntarily deny, the validity of some of the key substantial principles on which the international legal order was re-founded within and around the United Nations in 1945. When confronted with the factual reality of the present state of international relations as well as with the evolution of the law, one can conclude that the validity of the unity of the international legal order is unfailingly maintained, and that its role in upholding the international rule of law is more important now than ever.

A Keen Observer of the International Rule of Law? International Law in China's Voting Behaviour and Argumentation in the United Nations Security Council

2013 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 875-907 ◽  
Author(s):  
PHIL C. W. CHAN
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Security Council ◽  
United Nations Security Council ◽  
Voting Behaviour ◽  
International Legal Order ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
International Rule ◽  
Keen Observer

AbstractGiven the centrality of law in the creation, decision-making, and impact of the United Nations Security Council, the deliberative discourses among Security Council Members, and the necessity for China to articulate its reasons publicly for its actions within the Security Council, the roles that China plays within the Security Council illuminate and clarify its approaches to the current international legal order. This article explains how law serves as a constitutional–normative framework within which the Security Council must function, followed by a discussion of how the Security Council in turn may serve as a locus of deliberative discourses that delineate, influence, and constrain its members’ state behaviours. It challenges the view that law plays a limited role on matters of international security by exploring China's voting behaviour in the Security Council and the arguments that it has proffered. It also discusses how China may respond to a draft Security Council resolution aimed at its conduct other than simply by vetoing it, and how it has taken a proactive role in the maintenance of international peace and security through the Security Council.

scholarly journals Defining Sovereign Assets for Immunity from Execution: International Rule of Law Versus International Law - Based Rule of Law

Eudaimonia ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 165-179
Author(s):  
Ferdous Rahman
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Legal Order ◽  
Sovereign Immunity ◽  
International Legal Order ◽  
Uniform Definition ◽  
Model Law ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
International Conventions ◽  
International Rule

Sovereign assets receive restrictive sovereign immunity based on their purpose and/or use for execution of States’ commercial liabilities. The forum States’ courts decide the question of immunity of these assets. Due to lack of effective international conventions, these judgements result at inconsistent outcomes. Rule of law can be applied to mitigate this inconsistency. However, the objectives of rule of law vary for the national and the international legal order. Moreover, the divergence in group-interests of States and mandate of international organizations have failed to agree on a uniform definition of international rule of law. Thereby, this paper suggests international law-based rule of law as an alternative approach. International law-based rule of law aims at achieving the same objectives as domestic legal order, but, by the tools of international laws. Finally, it proposes to develop an inter-States consensus-based model law to have uniform principles of sovereign assets’ immunity in international law.

Two idea(l)s of the international rule of law

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
RICHARD COLLINS
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Legal Form ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Institutional Conditions ◽  
International Legal Order ◽  
To Come ◽  
The One ◽  
International Rule

Abstract:The international rule of law is a somewhat ubiquitous concept yet, as idea, it is marred by ambiguity and disagreement and, as ideal, constantly frustrated by the institutional conditions of the decentralised international legal order. Rather than necessarily undermining the concept, however, I argue that these structural conditions cause a kind of conceptual rupture, resulting in seemingly opposed or contradictory idealisations. On the one hand, the international rule of law can be understood as what Terry Nardin has called the ‘basis of association’ in international relations. This understanding places importance on the legal form as an end in itself, whereby the structural or institutional autonomy of international law is critical to the peaceable conduct of international relations. On the other hand, however, the rule of law exists as an unfulfilled promise of an order to come: it is distinctly anti-formalist in nature, stressing the functional capacity of international law to actually constrain political actors (primarily states) and thus seeking to develop more effective international institutional mechanisms. Although these competing idealisations give rise to a certain contradiction and inherent tension, their conceptual opposition is, I believe, critical to an understanding of authority and accountability dynamics in an era of ‘global governance’.

scholarly journals The principle of preventing the threat of force in international relationsWithin the framework of the Charter of the United Nations: مبدأ منع التهديد باستعمال القوة في العلاقات الدولية في إطار ميثاق الأمم المتحدة

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
AMIR HUSIN, YOUSIF ABDULLA ALMARZOOQI, FAREED BIN MOHD HASSA
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
Legal Order ◽  
International Peace ◽  
International Legal Order ◽  
Descriptive Approach ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
International Conventions

The study dealt with the principle of preventing the threat of use of force in international relations within the framework of the Charter of the United Nations by stating the content of the principle of preventing the threat of use of force in accordance with Article 2/4 of the Charter of the United Nations and analyzing legitimate exceptions to the use of force in accordance with the provisions of general international law. In order to achieve the objectives of the research, the descriptive approach was adopted to analyze the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations and international law and the international conventions governing the principle of preventing the threat of force in international relations and the views of scholars of international law. The problem of research is highlighted in the weaknesses of the Charter of the United Nations Force in international relations. The study concluded that the principle of preventing the threat of force in international relations was one of the fundamental pillars of the international legal order established by the Charter of the United Nations. The study reached a number of recommendations, the most important being the re-evaluation of measures to maintain international peace and security through a review of The Security Council acted by reducing the veto.

Viet Nam

2019 ◽  
pp. 476-496
Author(s):  
Trinh Hai Yen
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Current Practice ◽  
Legal Order ◽  
Viet Nam ◽  
Public International Law ◽  
International Legal Order ◽  
General Principles Of Law ◽  
Two Phases ◽  
Case Basis

This chapter explores international law in Viet Nam. It is difficult to comprehensively conceptualize international law in Viet Nam’s legal system. There is no formal documentation concerning two of the main sources of public international law: international custom and general principles of law. Treaties, by contrast, are dealt with in great detail. Viet Nam adopts a modified monist approach by maintaining the primacy of the Constitution and the priority of treaties and incorporating treaties into the muninipal law on a case-by-case basis. The use of treaties in Viet Nam can be divided into two phases: (i) colonial times and (ii) since independence in 1945 when modern Viet Nam, proactively relying on international law in the quest for ultimate independence and unification in 1975 and since, started a period of robust engagement in the international legal order. The chapter finally looks at Viet Nam’s current practice of concluding and enforcing treaties.

United Nations Targeted Sanctions, the International Rule of Law and the European Court of Justice's Judgment in Kadi and al-Barakaat

2010 ◽  
Vol 79 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fredrik Stenhammar
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Financial Assets ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Community Law ◽  
European Court ◽  
Economic Warfare ◽  
Domestic Law ◽  
International Rule

AbstractThis article analyzes the judgment of the European Court of Justice in the Kadi and al-Barakaat case from the perspective of international law and the rule of law among nations. The conclusions drawn are with regard to international law and thus not necessarily decisive for the application of domestic law and Community law to the issue of targeted United Nations (UN) sanctions. It is argued that targeted UN sanctions in the form of blacklisting and freezing of financial assets are lawful under applicable international law as a species of economic warfare. Even if, contrary to expectation, they were unlawful when first introduced, consent and active participation on part of the European states mean that they are in all likelihood precluded from protesting against them now. The European Community Court's judgment cannot affect the validity under international law of targeted UN sanctions. If it turns out that the UN sanctions can no longer be accommodated within Community law, which is an implication but by no means an immediate result of the judgment, it will be for each state to apply its national legislation and continue to implement the sanctions, disregarding Community law if necessary. This would be a serious test of the European states' professed devotion to international law.

Afghanistan

2019 ◽  
pp. 674-700
Author(s):  
Veronica L. Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Legal History ◽  
Legal Institutions ◽  
Legal Norms ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
International Rule ◽  
Conflict Period

This chapter addresses international law in Afghanistan. States where the ‘post-conflict’ period is, in fact, a series of continuing sub-national conflicts, are often coded as ‘failed’ or ‘fragile’ and are also criticized as failing in their embrace of international law. In the case of Afghanistan, such ‘discourses of deficiency’ also erase some important legal history. For most of its history, Afghanistan has been contingent as a Westphalian state. This means that it has also had a fluid relationship with the institutions and norms of international law, including the normative discourse and practice of the international rule of law. Although Afghanistan has been a member of the United Nations since 1946, and thus a contributor to international law in the twentieth century, it is seen more as a subject of international law. After considering these issues, the chapter then highlights the complexity of Afghan’s location within, as well as its relationship with, international law, international legal institutions, and international legal norms.

The United Nations Decade of International Law

1991 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 417-427 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.St.J. Macdonald
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Working Group ◽  
Legal Order ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
International Legal Order ◽  
The United Nations

Canadian lawyers and all those interested in international affairs will be pleased to know that the Sixth Committee of the General Assembly concluded on November 15, 1990 its deliberations on the report of the working group on the United Nations Decade of International Law (“the Vukas Report”) under the chairmanship of Professor Budislav Vukas of Yugoslavia (“the Vukas Committee”). The Vukas Report sets out the proposed program of activities for the first period of the Decade, being the period 1990-92, and represents another important step towards the implementation of Resolution 44/23 of November 17, 1989, and the fulfilment of the aspirations connected with that resolution for strengthening the international legal order. The Report was well received by the delegations of states to the Sixth Committee and on November 19, 1990, the General Assembly adopted by consensus the program of activities set out in the Report, the Decade thus achieving more tangible form.

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