Is There a Compliance Trilemma in International Law?

Abstract

This chapter is a comment on Jeffrey L Dunoff’s discussion of the compliance trilemma. It emphasizes that one needs to continue studying fuzzy concepts even if they are difficult to measure. Moreover, it argues that the compliance trilemma is a parsimonious tool for understanding tensions in global governance but not an inescapable structural constraint in an anarchic international system. Its tensions can be mediated or overcome by the clever design of international agreements or institutions.