Changing Actors In International Law

Changing Actors in International Law explores actors other than the ‘state’ in international law focusing on under-researched actors (quasi-states, trans-government networks, Indigenous Peoples, self-determination claimant groups) as well the less well studied aspects of otherwise well-researched actors (individuals, corporations, NGOs, armed organised groups).

Focusing on how to improve the participation of non-governmental actors in the making of international climate change laws, this book is a conversation on the relevance of a human rights-based approach to international climate change law-making. The book considers a possible reform of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change institutional arrangement, inspired by the practice and model of participation of Arctic Indigenous Peoples in the Arctic Council. Different non-State entities play a fundamental role in the development and enforcement of the climate change regime by enhancing the knowledge base of decision-making, keeping States in line with their commitments, and engaging in private initiatives aimed at mitigating the impacts of global warming. Albeit non-governmental and subnational actors increasingly work alongside States in the making of a climate change regime, the category of observers through which they participate in intergovernmental negotiations only gives them limited rights and their participation in international norm-making has at times been impaired. The relevance of a human rights-based approach consists in recognising the status of individuals and groups as rights-holders under human rights law, a paradigm that was first established by Arctic Indigenous Peoples when claiming their participatory rights in the Arctic Council, the main forum of governance of the Arctic region. This book argues that, in the absence of a globally binding treaty regulating procedural rights in intergovernmental negotiations, the emerging relationship between human rights and climate change could serve as a legal basis for the enhancement of non-governmental actors’ procedural rights, establishing the right to participation as a right in itself and which can benefit the governance of climate change. Due to the relevance of the addressed subject, the book is destined to a broad readership and will be of use to academic researchers, law practitioners, policy-makers and non-governmental organisations’ representatives.

Non-state actors have always been treated with ambivalence in the works of international law. While their empirical existence is widely acknowledged and their impact and influence uncontested, non-state actors are still not in the centre of international legal research. The idea that non-state actors are not law-makers, however, stands in sharp contrast with the growing notion of non-state actors as law-takers. This book examines the position of non-state actors in international law as law-makers and law-takers and questions whether these different positions can or should be separated from each other. Each contribution reveals both the political and normative aspects of the question as well as the positivistic possibilities and constraints to accommodate non-state actors as law-takers and law-makers in the contemporary international legal system. Altogether, each expert reveals that the position of non-state actors in international law is not a fixed one but changes with the functional and theoretical perspectives of the observer. Non-State Actor Dynamics in International Law is a welcomed addition to an under researched field of legal study. An indispensable read to scholars and policy makers wishing to gain new insights into general discourse on non-state actors in international law and the process of norm formation in the international realm.

Advocating Social Change through International Law, edited by Professors Daniel Bradlow and David Hunter, explores the use of hard and soft international law in advocating for social change. Using case studies rooted in inter alia human rights, international crimes, environmental protection, public heath, and financial regulation, the book focuses on both state and non-state actors’ strategic choices regarding the use of hard and soft international law in advocating for social change. Looking through the social change lens provides new insights into the interplay between soft and hard international law, the perceived costs and benefits associated with hard and soft international law in different contexts, and the factors affecting the effectiveness of hard and soft approaches to international law.

Written by some of the leading International Law scholars in the nation, International Law: Norms, Actors, Process: A Problem-Oriented Approach employs a unique problem-based approach to examining international issues. Using real-life case studies as teaching problems, the text explores the processes for making and applying international law, with an interdisciplinary approach that goes beyond mere doctrinal explanation. New to the Fifth Edition: An introduction to international law through the Julian Assange episode Presentation of state responsibility through the problem of cyber espionage and of the responsibility of international organizations through the problem of sexual assaults by UN peacekeepers Integration of new U.S. Supreme Court decisions on the Alien Tort Statute, jurisdiction, and other topics Analysis of the challenges that artificial intelligence and autonomous weapons pose to international humanitarian law Comprehensive treatment of the Paris Accord on Climate Change New cases and analysis on the role and legitimacy of international courts Professors and students will benefit from: Contemporary problems as a vehicle for learning international legal rules and processes Clear explanation of legal rules and institutions Interdisciplinary approach to international law with attention to the law’s relevance in global affairs Careful selection and editing of primary materials to produce a casebook of teachable dimensions Inclusion of maps, charts, and photographs Casebook website offering relevant texts and updates

The human rights of communities in many resource-rich, weak governance States are adversely affected, not only by the acts of States and their agents, but also by powerful non-State actors. Contemporary phenomena such as globalisation, privatisation and the proliferation of internal armed conflict have all contributed to the increasing public influence of these entities and the correlative decline in State power. This book responds to the persistent challenges stemming from non-State actors linked to extractive industries. In light of the intersecting roles of multinational enterprises and non-State armed groups in this context, these actors are adopted as the primary analytical vehicles. The operations of these entities highlight the practical flaws of existing accountability regimes and permit an exploration of the theoretical challenges that preclude their direct legal regulation at the international level. Drawing insights from discursive democracy, compliance theories and the Pure Theory of Law, the book establishes a conceptual foundation for the creation of binding international obligations addressing non-State actors. Responding to the recent calls for a binding business and human rights treaty at the UN Human Rights Council, and the growing influence of armed non-State actors, the book makes a timely contribution to debates surrounding the direction of future developments in the field of international human rights law.

This work approaches international law as more than merely information contained in international legal norms, & does not view international law as a body of objective & binding normative commands. As 'legal knowledge', international law encompasses rules, practices & the expectations actors derive through legal reasoning from conventional legal rules, customary norms, international adjudication, & international legal theory. The study is in three parts. Part I constructs a framework to analyze the effectiveness of international law to influence decision-making within conflict resolution processes. Drawing on the contending approaches of the New Haven School of International Law & its rivals & applying various devices of linkage theory, the analysis isolates variables & indicators of the impact of legal expectations on actors' decision-making style. These variables & indicators also reveal the ways international legal rules are affected by the actors' perceptions about the normative contents of such rules in a particular bargaining process. Parts II & III apply the framework of Part I to explain the role of international law in the Central American peace negotiations of the 1980s. Using the framework, Parts II & III identify sources of uncertainty & diverging expectations in the Western Hemisphere that aggravated rather than assuaged the Central American crisis. Parts II & III also explain the normative constraints that affected Central American decision-makers & provided the basis for most of the regional consensus within the Esquipulas meeting. With the help of heuristic devices from the behavioral sciences, this study of international law proposes an alternative to the traditional views of international legal effectiveness in the modern world. Joaquín Tacsan , Lic. en Der. & M.A. International Law (University of Costa Rica); L.L.M. J.S.D. (Boalt Hall, University of California, Berkeley). Mr Tacsan currently serves as Executive Advisor to former President of Costa Rica & 1987 Nobel Laureate Oscar Arias & as program Advisor of the Arias Foundation's Centre for Peace & Reconciliation. He is professor of Public International Law at the University of San Jose, Costa Rica.

This book examines whether international agreements between non-state actors can be identified as a source of international law using objective criteria. It asks whether, beyond Article 38 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice, there is a system of rules, processes, beliefs or semantics by which these agreements can be objectively identified as a source of international law. Departing from the more usual state-centric analysis, it adopts postmodern legal positivism as its analytical tool. This allows for the reality that international law-making takes place in subjective social landscapes. To test the effectiveness of this approach, it is applied to agreements between petroleum agencies and corporations which allow two or more states to exploit disputed resources across boundaries looking in particular at arrangements involving China, Vietnam and the Philippines. By so doing it illustrates an alternative way that states can manage disputes, without having to resort to conflict. It will appeal to both scholars and practitioners of public international law, as well as civil servants.