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1. EJIL Editors’ Choice of Books 2015

Author:
Sarah Nouwen, Christian Tams, Jan Klabbers, and Jean d'Aspremont
Publication Date:
10-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
At the end of 2014, we invited the EJIL Board members to reflect on the books that had had a significant impact on them during the year. Their contributions, posted on EJIL: Talk!, were met with great interest and curiosity. As the end of another year approaches, we decided once more to invite our Board members to look back on their reading in 2015. In the following pieces Sarah Nouwen, Christian Tams, Jan Klabbers and Jean d’Aspremont write about the books they read or re-read this year and which they found inspiring, enjoyable or even ‘must reads’ for their own work or international law scholarship in general.
Topic:
Human Rights, International Law, History, and Courts
Political Geography:
Africa, Europe, and South Sudan

2. The Rise and Fall of Democracy Governance in International Law: A Reply to Susan Marks

Author:
Jean d'Aspremont
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
Although going down a different path, this article reaches similar conclusions to those formulated by Susan Marks. It starts by showing that the years 1989–2010 can be hailed as an unprecedented epoch of international law during which domestic governance came to be regulated to an unprecedented extent. This materialized through the coming into existence of a requirement of democratic origin of governments which has been dubbed the principle of democratic legitimacy. However, this article argues that the rapid rise of non-democratic super-powers, growing security concerns at the international level, the 2007–2010 economic crisis, the instrumentalization of democratization policies of Western countries as well as the rise of some authoritarian superpowers could be currently cutting short the consolidation of the principle of democratic legitimacy in international law. After sketching out the possible rise (1) and fall (2) of the principle of democratic legitimacy in the practice of international law and the legal scholarship since 1989, the article seeks critically to appraise the lessons learnt from that period, especially regarding the ability of international law to regulate domestic governance (3) and the various dynamics that have permeated the legal scholarship over the last two decades (4). In doing so, it sheds some light on some oscillatory dynamics similarly pinpointed by Susan Marks in her contribution to this journal.
Topic:
International Law

3. The Politics of Deformalization in International Law

Author:
Jean d'Aspremont
Publication Date:
09-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Institution:
The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Abstract:
Confronted with the pluralization of the exercise of public authority at the international level and the retreat of international law as a regulatory instrument, international legal scholars have engaged in two survival strategies. On the one hand, there are international legal scholars who have tried to constitutionalize traditional international law with a view to enhancing its appeal and promoting its use by global actors. On the other hand, there are scholars who, considering any charm offensive to induce global actors to cast their norms under the aegis of classical international a lost battle, have embarked on a deformalization of international law that has led them to loosen the meshed fabric through which they make sense of reality. This deformalization of international law has sometimes materialized in a radical abandonment of theories of sources. The constitutionalist strategy has already been extensively discussed in the literature. The second approach has thrived almost unnoticed. It is this second scholarly strategy to the pluralization of the exercise of public authority that this article seeks to critically evaluate. After describing the most prominent manifestations of deformalization in the theory of international law and examining its agenda, the paper considers some of the hazards of deformalization. This paper simultaneously demonstrates that formalism has not entirely vanished, as it has continued to enjoy some support, albeit in different forms. These variations between deformalization and the persistence of formalism, this paper concludes, are the result of political choices which international legal scholars are not always fully aware of.
Topic:
International Law

4. Reinforcing the (neo-)Hobbesian representations of international law

Author:
Jean d'Aspremont
Publication Date:
03-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of International Relations and Development
Institution:
Central and East European International Studies Association
Abstract:
The question of the foundations of the international legal order has long fuelled controversies. The mainstream international legal scholarship, dominated by liberal and constitutionalist discourses, has advocated an understanding of international law that rests on global values. This article examines the work of a few Eastern European scholars with a view to demonstrating that the mainstream liberal and constitutionalist value-based conceptions of the international legal order have not been uncontested. In doing so, this article draws on the resemblances between Eastern European and Asian legal scholarships in their attempts to question the hegemonic and imperialistic overtones of an ever-growing international law.
Topic:
International Law
Political Geography:
Eastern Europe and Asia

5. Softness in International Law: A Self-Serving Quest for New Legal Materials

Author:
Jean d'Aspremont
Publication Date:
11-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
The concept of soft law which rests on the idea that the binary nature of law is ill suited to accommodate the growing complexity of contemporary international relations has been endorsed by a large number of scholars. It has however remained under the attack of those who are commonly portrayed as positivists. Although it does not seek to rehabilitate positivism as a whole, this article will try to offer a refreshed and modernized account of the positivist objection to soft law. It will accordingly distinguish several types of softness. Such a dichotomy will help to unravel the underlying agenda of some of the staunchest supporters of the concept of soft law. The article will ultimately expound on the proneness of international legal scholars to stretch the limit of their object of study by constantly seizing materials outside the realm of international law in order to alleviate the strain inherent in the contemporary proliferation of international legal thinking.
Topic:
International Law