{"title":"Why Use the Language of the Law in Global Politics? On the Legitimacy Effects of Claiming to Act Legally","authors":"I. Venzke","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197588437.003.0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197588437.003.0002","url":null,"abstract":"Why do actors use the language of international law in global politics? This chapter discusses answers to this question from the perspective of three different logics of action—consequentialism, appropriateness, and deference. It exposes how different explanations for the invocation of international law share assumptions about the law’s legitimacy effect, i.e., its impact on evaluative judgments about what is right and wrong. Typically: Do levels of approval decrease if a certain behavior is claimed to be illegal? This chapter discusses experimental studies that have inquired into the impact of invoking the law on public opinion, overall offering some support for the law’s legitimacy effect. But those studies are partially contradictory and require further refinement. The chapter argues that inquiries should pay closer regard to international law’s distinctive claim to authority, to the predispositions of non-US audiences, and to law’s function in enabling rather than constraining behavior. On this basis, the chapter makes suggestions for future experimental setups, closing with an outlook on the deep divides that have separated experimental methods from legal research of a more critical bent.","PeriodicalId":248745,"journal":{"name":"Talking International Law","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-11-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128731682","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Arguing about the Jus ad Bellum","authors":"Monica Hakimi","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197588437.003.0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197588437.003.0003","url":null,"abstract":"Quite a bit of research suggests that international law’s argumentative practice has value insofar as it leads to or affirms some kind of normative settlement. This chapter uses the argumentative practice in the jus ad bellum to counter that view. The chapter’s central claim is that arguments about the jus ad bellum are valuable, even when they do not lead to normative settlement and the law’s content on the issue in dispute remains contested. The reason they are valuable is that they promote certain values that are associated with the rule of law.","PeriodicalId":248745,"journal":{"name":"Talking International Law","volume":"36 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-11-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124666546","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"International Legal ArgumentationPractice in Need of a Theory","authors":"I. Johnstone, S. Ratner","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197588437.003.0001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197588437.003.0001","url":null,"abstract":"This introductory chapter situates the study of legal argumentation outside of courtrooms in the context of existing theories of discourse and deliberation in international law and politics. It identifies a central gap in those theories, namely, the distinctive role of legal as opposed to other forms of argumentation. It posits a set of questions addressed in the book that together illuminate the microprocesses of communicating in the language of international law: who, what, where, why, and to what effect? The introduction also provides a synopsis of the chapters in the book, clustered into three groups: security, human dignity, and the global commons.","PeriodicalId":248745,"journal":{"name":"Talking International Law","volume":"41 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-11-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122344279","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Legal Argumentation in the Evolving Climate Regime","authors":"Jutta Brunnée","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197588437.003.0012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197588437.003.0012","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter explores the evolution of the UN climate regime and its implications for patterns of legal argumentation. The 2015 Paris Agreement introduced three interrelated shifts. First, it brings a shift from a model in which the treaty serves as centralized forum for inter-state standard setting and accountability practices, epitomized by the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, to a more decentralized model in which the treaty helps orchestrate a range of state and non-state practices, epitomized by the Paris Agreement. Second, it marks a turn toward non-binding substantive terms, supported by binding procedural terms. Finally, the Paris Agreement shifts from legal accountability practices toward non-legal performance assessment. A practice-based, interactional, account of international law suggests that only the third shift stands to reduce the scope for legal argumentation in the regime. The Paris Agreement’s decentralized approach and its increased reliance on non-binding or procedural terms are unlikely to diminish the salience of legal argumentation.","PeriodicalId":248745,"journal":{"name":"Talking International Law","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-11-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130569716","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Toward a Theory of Legal Argumentation","authors":"I. Johnstone, S. Ratner","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197588437.003.0017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197588437.003.0017","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter synthesizes some of the key insights from the book’s contributors as a first effort toward building a theory of international legal argumentation outside the courtroom. It deploys an inductive method for identifying common threads from the studies and poses questions for future theoretical work on nonjudicial legal argumentation. The chapter begins by demonstrating the diversity of understandings by participants and scholars on the meaning of a legal argument. It then turns to the motives for legal argumentation identified within the chapters, cataloging and situating them with respect to the venues of argumentation, the timing of argumentation, and the choice to abstain from legal argumentation. The analysis moves to consider the effects of argumentation, both those intended and not intended. Based on the findings in the chapters, it offers a set of possible factors accounting for the success of a legal argument. Two other considerations essential to any theories of argumentation—the density of the legal landscape and the perceived need for consistency in argumentation—are also addressed. The chapter concludes by suggesting research agendas so that the work of this volume can contribute to different theories of international law and relations.","PeriodicalId":248745,"journal":{"name":"Talking International Law","volume":"28 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-11-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132644631","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Mass Atrocity Crimes and Human Rights Discourse at the UN Security Council","authors":"Bruno Stagno-Ugarte","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197588437.003.0008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197588437.003.0008","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter analyzes the use, abuse, or nonuse of legal discourse by key actors within the UN Security Council. Focusing on the crimes enshrined in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, the chapter looks at how legal discourse is used within the Council to argue whether such crimes are happening, whether such discourse successfully advances—or not—specific action by the Council to address these crimes, and how political considerations can generate the uneven invocation and application of legal terms and norms. Its three country-specific case studies (Myanmar, Syria, Yemen) point to self-serving double standards that, in addition to weakening overall coherence and adherence to international norms, are self-defeating for the Council in raising questions about its impartiality, accuracy, and efficacy in addressing atrocity crimes.","PeriodicalId":248745,"journal":{"name":"Talking International Law","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-11-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129024789","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Argumentation in the UN Security CouncilInternational Law as Process","authors":"Scott P. Sheeran","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197588437.003.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197588437.003.0004","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter addresses the process of international legal argumentation within the UN Security Council context. The Council is the central global stage for mitigating international conflict and for managing cooperation on threats to international peace and security. The Council is relatively unique in that it creates, interprets, and enforces international law. The Council’s processes of decision-making are influenced more by international relations, underpinned by diplomacy and consensus, than the norms of international law. To have influence in the Council, international lawyers must think and argue laterally and embrace law as a social process. The leveraging of extralegal factors—arising from international relations, diplomacy, policy considerations, and international values—ultimately shapes the output of the legal process itself.","PeriodicalId":248745,"journal":{"name":"Talking International Law","volume":"13 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-11-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122632758","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Argumentation through LawAn Analysis of Decisions of the African Union","authors":"W. Werner","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197588437.003.0010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197588437.003.0010","url":null,"abstract":"There is a long-standing dispute between the African Union and the International Criminal Court. At one level, this dispute concerns legal-technical questions such as immunities of heads of states, the identification of customary law, or the scope of resolutions of the UN Security Council. However, underlying these legal disputes are highly political questions regarding recognition, respect, and equality. The African Union has addressed these questions in a series of formal Decisions, adopted by its highest organ, the Assembly of Heads of State and Government. These Decisions reveal what gives the more doctrinal debates their political bite. In addition, these Decisions present the stance of the African Union in the form and with the authority of law, thus binding member states and presenting a unified position vis-à-vis the International Criminal Court and other international audiences. Political struggles are thus partly articulated in legal form, a type of “argumentation through law” that attaches formal validity to claims about membership, recognition, and equality.","PeriodicalId":248745,"journal":{"name":"Talking International Law","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-11-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125892821","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}