Sovereign Equality and Moral Disagreement

Sovereign Equality and Moral Disagreement
Author: Professor Brad R. Roth
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages:
Release: 2009-12-15
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0199711593

In Sovereign Equality and Moral Disagreement: Premises of a Pluralist International Legal Order, Professor Brad R. Roth provides readers with a working knowledge of the various applications of sovereign equality in international law, and defends the principle of sovereign equality as a morally sound response to disagreements in the international realm. The United Nations system's foundational principle of sovereign equality reflects persistent disagreement within its membership as to what constitutes a legitimate and just internal public order. While the boundaries of the system's pluralism have narrowed progressively in the course of the United Nations era, accommodation of diversity in modes of internal political organization remains a durable theme of the international order. This accommodation of diversity underlies the international system's commitment to preserving a state's territorial integrity and political independence, sometimes at the expense of efforts to establish a universal justice that transcends territorial boundaries. Efforts to establish a universal justice, however, need to heed the dangers of allowing powerful states to invoke universal principles to rationalize unilateral (and often self-serving) impositions upon weak states. In Sovereign Equality and Moral Disagreement, Brad R. Roth explains that though frequently counterintuitive, limitations on cross-border exercises of power are supported by substantial moral and political considerations, and are properly overridden only in a limited range of cases.

Peremptory Norms of General International Law (Jus Cogens)

Peremptory Norms of General International Law (Jus Cogens)
Author: Dire Tladi
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 806
Release: 2021-08-16
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9004464123

Peremptory Norms of General International Law (Jus Cogens): Disquisitions and Dispositions is a collection of contributions on various aspects of jus cogens in international law.

International Law: A Very Short Introduction

International Law: A Very Short Introduction
Author: Vaughan Lowe
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 145
Release: 2015-11-26
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0191576204

Interest in international law has increased greatly over the past decade, largely because of its central place in discussions such as the Iraq War and Guantanamo, the World Trade Organisation, the anti-capitalist movement, the Kyoto Convention on climate change, and the apparent failure of the international system to deal with the situations in Palestine and Darfur, and the plights of refugees and illegal immigrants around the world. This Very Short Introduction explains what international law is, what its role in international society is, and how it operates. Vaughan Lowe examines what international law can and cannot do and what it is and what it isn't doing to make the world a better place. Focussing on the problems the world faces, Lowe uses terrorism, environmental change, poverty, and international violence to demonstrate the theories and practice of international law, and how the principles can be used for international co-operation.

The Thin Justice of International Law

The Thin Justice of International Law
Author: Steven R. Ratner
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 497
Release: 2015
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0198704046

Offering a new interdisciplinary approach to global justice and integrating the insights of international relations and contemporary ethics, this book asks whether the core norms of international law are just by appraising them according to a standard of global justice grounded in the advancement of peace and protection of human rights.

The UN Friendly Relations Declaration at 50

The UN Friendly Relations Declaration at 50
Author: Jorge E. Viñuales
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 1047
Release: 2020-10-08
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1108662307

The year 2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the United Nations Organisation, and the 50th anniversary of the United Nations Friendly Relations Declaration, which states the fundamental principles of the international legal order. In commemoration, some of the world's most prominent international law scholars from all continents have come together to offer a comprehensive study of the fundamental principles of international law. Each chapter in this volume reflects decades of experience, work and reflection by the most authoritative voices of the field. At the same time, the book is an invitation to end narrow specialisation and re-engage with the wider body of rules and processes that lie at the foundations of the international legal order.

Sovereign (In) Equality in International Organizations

Sovereign (In) Equality in International Organizations
Author: Athena Debbie Efraim
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 504
Release: 2021-10-25
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9004478345

This book challenges the dominant intellectual assumptions of mainstream international law scholarship regarding the principle of Sovereign Equality. The animus and scope of this challenge is situated in the context of the decision-making processes in International Governmental Organizations (IGOs) which employ the `one state, one vote' and/or the `weighted voting' rule. Using the theories of Functionalism and Legitimacy to analyze the legal implications and complications of the principal voting mechanisms and voting practices of certain key IGOs vis-à-vis the doctrine of Sovereign Equality, the author establishes that this doctrine has remained far too orthodox for contemporary realities. In this context, she emphasizes the importance of the necessity for functional legitimate decision-making processes in global governance, and, accordingly, advocates the elimination of the anachronistic and non-viable principle of Sovereign Equality from international institutional law. The author also rejects the introduction of any new principle in IGOs - e.g. democratic governance - which will render decision-making even less functional.

International Law and Japanese Sovereignty

International Law and Japanese Sovereignty
Author: Douglas Howland
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 239
Release: 2016-11-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1137567775

How does a nation become a great power? A global order was emerging in the nineteenth century, one in which all nations were included. This book explores the multiple legal grounds of Meiji Japan's assertion of sovereign statehood within that order: natural law, treaty law, international administrative law, and the laws of war. Contrary to arguments that Japan was victimized by 'unequal' treaties, or that Japan was required to meet a 'standard of civilization' before it could participate in international society, Howland argues that the Westernizing Japanese state was a player from the start. In the midst of contradictions between law and imperialism, Japan expressed state will and legal acumen as an equal of the Western powers – international incidents in Japanese waters, disputes with foreign powers on Japanese territory, and the prosecution of interstate war. As a member of international administrative unions, Japan worked with fellow members to manage technical systems such as the telegraph and the post. As a member of organizations such as the International Law Association and as a leader at the Hague Peace Conferences, Japan helped to expand international law. By 1907, Japan was the first non-western state to join the ranks of the great powers.

United States Hegemony and the Foundations of International Law

United States Hegemony and the Foundations of International Law
Author: Michael Byers
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 551
Release: 2003-05-29
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1139436635

Successive hegemonic powers have shaped the foundations of international law. This book examines whether the predominance of the United States is leading to foundational change in the international legal system. A range of leading scholars in international law and international relations consider six foundational areas that could be undergoing change, including international community, sovereign equality, the law governing the use of force, and compliance. The authors demonstrate that the effects of US predominance on the foundations of international law are real, but also intensely complex. This complexity is due, in part, to a multitude of actors exercising influential roles. And it is also due to the continued vitality and remaining functionality of the international legal system itself. This system limits the influence of individual states, while stretching and bending in response to the changing geopolitics of our time.