Exploring the ‘Ecology’ of Laws at the Interface Between International Rights Law and Subnational Customary Law

Abstract

What has gone wrong with the great fundamental rights project? 1 Despite ‘the burgeoning human rights revolution’ with its constantly ‘evolving’ standards, the world is still plagued by ‘massive violations’ of core fundamental rights. Neither relentless pressure from international organisations nor the involvement of powerful NGOs has ensured that states eradicate rights abuses. Resistance to rights reform, whether it comes from states themselves or from substate communities, points to the fact that the system created by international law is constantly competing with other, resilient, forms of regulation. This means that more of the same type of reform is unlikely to translate into a greater and better vindication of rights. Hence, the argument is that, for rights reform to be effective, legislation must not only recognise but also purposively engage with these alternative regimes and, as explained below, particularly with those at subnational level, where resistance to reform could be heightened. With respect to rights reform in general, it is clear that an uncomfortable ‘contact zone’ exists between international law and many subnational systems,