Talking International Law - Legal Argumentation Outside the Courtroom

Written by a team of distinguished scholars and senior practitioners from around the world, Talking International Law examines legal argumentation by states and other actors in the settings where it mostly transpires - outside of courts. Offering unprecedented insight into the theory of legal argumentation, the book offers a unique exposure to this multi-faceted practice, deepening our understanding of how international law actually operates in international affairs.

List of contents

• Chapter 1. Introduction by Ian Johnstone and Steven Ratner


• Chapter 2. Why Use the Language of the Law in Global Politics? On the Legitimacy Effects of Claiming to Act Legally by Ingo Venzke


• Chapter 3. Arguing about the Jus ad Bellum by Monica Hakimi


• Chapter 4. International Law as Process: Argumentation in the United Nations Security Council by Scott P. Sheeran


• Chapter 5. Protesting the Preamble: Normative Pronouncements and Feminist Jurisprudence in the Security Council by Gina Heathcote


• Chapter 6. Persuasion About/Without International Law: The Case of Cybersecurity Norms by Steven R. Ratner


• Chapter 7. Nuclear Non-Proliferation Law: Why Argue and to What Effect? by Ian Johnstone


• Chapter 8. Mass Atrocity Crimes and Human Rights Discourse at the United Nations Security Council: Three Case Studies by Bruno Stagno-Ugarte


• Chapter 9. Non-State Armed Actors and International Legal Argumentation: Patterns, Processes, and Putative Effects by Hyeran Jo


• Chapter 10. Argumentation Through Law: An Analysis of Decisions of the African Union by Wouter Werner


• Chapter 11. The Sanctions Regime of the African Union in the Case of Unconstitutional Change of Government by Namira Negm


• Chapter 12. Legal Argumentation in the Evolving Climate Regime by Jutta Brunnée


• Chapter 13. Law and Science in Environmental Governance: The Effects of Legal and Scientific Argumentation in the International Whaling Commission by Lisbeth Zimmermann


• Chapter 14. International Legal Argumentation Outside the Courtroom: A Focus on Intellectual Property by Edward Kwakwa


• Chapter 15. Arguing about Trade Law Beyond the Courtroom by Kathleen Claussen


• Chapter 16. The Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations by Stephen Mathias and Nicolas Perez


• Chapter 17. Towards a Theory of Legal Argumentation by Ian Johnstone and Steven Ratner

About the author

Ian Johnstone is Professor of International Law at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He has served as Dean ad interim and as Academic Dean of the School. Prior to joining Fletcher in 2000, Johnstone served in the United Nations' Office of the Secretary-General. He has held Visiting Professor positions at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law and Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, and at New York University School of Law. He has served on the editorial boards of Global Governance and International Organizations Law Review.

Steven R. Ratner is the Bruno Simma Collegiate Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School and the Director of the University of Michigan Donia Human Rights Center. His research addresses a range of issues in international law, including linkages with political philosophy and international relations theory. He has served in U.S. State Department's Office of the Legal Adviser, on expert panels of the UN

Secretary-General addressing atrocities in Sri Lanka and Cambodia, in the legal division of the International Committee of the Red Cross, and on the State Department's Advisory Committee on International Law.

Summary

Examining legal argumentation by states and other actors in the settings where it mostly transpires - outside of courts, Talking International Law challenges the realist assumption that legal argumentation is largely inconsequential. Addressing a gap in scholarship within international law and international relations theory, this book provides a comprehensive analysis of why it occurs, how, where, and to what effect by exploring the phenomenon in a range of issue areas, from security and human rights, to the environment, trade, and intellectual property.

Diplomats and other governmental actors are the principal participants in international legal discourse, but intergovernmental officials, non-governmental organizations, academics, corporations, and even non-state armed groups also engage in "law talk." Through close examination of legal arguments in political and other settings, the authors uncover various motives these actors have for making legal claims - including persuasion, strategic calculations, assertions of identity, and the felt need to legitimate one's actions - or to delegitimate those of an adversary. Legal argumentation can have short-term and long-term effects, both intended and unintended, on immediate participants or a wider net of actors. By bringing together distinguished scholars with diverse perspectives and senior practitioners from around the world who engage in such argumentation themselves, the book offers a unique exposure to the multi-faceted practice of legal argumentation and thereby deepens our understanding of how international law actually operates in international affairs.

Additional text

Talking International Law brilliantly addresses the puzzle why and to what effect legal arguments are used outside the courtroom in international law. The book describes how references to international law are all-pervasive in world politics, from inter-state negotiations to proceedings of international organizations including the various UN bodies. "Legal arguments even show up in the discourses of non-state actors, from human rights organizations to rebel groups. But the book does not just describe these discourses, it also explores the "who," "how," and "to what effect." It integrates a whole set of theoretical approaches, from legal theory to political theory to international relations. A "Must Read!" for anybody concerned with international law, international norms, theories of deliberation, and with world politics in general."
-Thomas Risse, Professor of International Politics, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany

Product details

• Authors: Ian Johnstone, Ian (Professor of International Law Johnstone, Steven Ratner, Steven (Bruno Simma Collegiate Professor of Law Ratner
• Assisted by: Ian Johnstone (Editor), Ian (Professor of International Law Johnstone (Editor), Steven Ratner (Editor), Steven (Bruno Simma Collegiate Professor of Law Ratner (Editor)
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.08.2021
• EAN: 9780197588437
• ISBN: 978-0-19-758843-7
• No. of pages: 376
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Law > International law, foreign law; LAW / International, LAW / Public, Public International Law, Legal system: general, Jurisprudence & Philosophy Of Law, Methods, theory and philosophy of law, Legal systems: general