Proposals for Strengthening the UN Dispute Settlement System

Abstract

In his "philosophical sketch" on "Perpetual Peace" (1795), Immanuel Kant explained why classical international law, based on state sovereignty and self-help, cannot secure freedom and equal rights of citizens as well as of states. In order to limit abuses of government powers and protect "democratic peace" at home and abroad, national constitutional guarantees of individual rights and of representative governments must be supplemented by international constitutional rules based on a "federation of free states" and on "cosmopolitan" integration law for peaceful cooperation among citizens across frontiers. Kant criticized classical