International Law Institutions Research Articles

Rewriting the law of international organizations: Whither the Asia Pacific?

Abstract The law of international organizations is often described in terms of both its universality and its unity. Writers in this field begin their texts with an acknowledgement that there are common legal principles that have been developed by, and can be applied to, a variety of international organizations. The idea that there are legal principles applicable to multiple organizations – whatever their membership, location, powers, technical functions, or financial resources – is also implicit in the reports of the International Law Commission discussing the immunities, responsibilities, and law-making capacity of international organizations. But despite this search for common principles, a question remains whether international institutional law is based on the practice of all, or at the very least, a range, of organizations. Writers in this field have tended to focus on the activities of organizations based in either Europe or North America, including the United Nations and its specialized agencies, the European Union, and Council of Europe. This article argues that the omission of the principles and practices of organizations outside Europe and the United Nations’ system, specifically Asia Pacific organizations, undermines the claim of international institutional law to be universal. It explores the way in which a more inclusive approach – one that pays attention to the perspectives of Asia Pacific organizations – could illuminate certain features of the law and lead international lawyers to reconceive some of its central principles.

EXTRADITION: DIRECTIONS OF DEVELOPMENT

The study of one of the basic institutions of criminal law and international criminal law is aimed at creating a system of approaches to the development of existing law that can lead to the development of a universal approach to providing legal assistance. The purpose of the study is to determine the directions of the development of the law for providing legal assistance under the extradition process. Materials and methods. The method of analyzing sources of law made it possible to identify weaknesses when carrying out the extradition; the comparison method revealed a divergence in norms relating to the basis for extradition, which gives a forecast for solving a number of problems for both parties of the mechanism under study. Research results. The practical application of extradition rules makes it possible to achieve the desired result, but the desired effect is achieved through large and unreasonable efforts of both parties with a large bureaucratic toolkit, which leads to the idea of optimizing a number of processes. Conclusions. The institution of extradition should be considered as a flexible tool of legal assistance that allows solving the problems of justice in the spirit of the current principles of humanity and legality. The creation of an international instrument of a universal nature can fill gaps in the law and lead to a uniform extradition mechanism at the bilateral level. Due to current political international processes, the formation of such a document seems appropriate.

Identifying the Legitimacy of the Taliban Government and the Resurrection of Peace in Afghanistan

A government’s legality and its recognition need to be tested through the lenses of international law where the government changes through unconstitutional measures. The Taliban’s coming to power in Afghanistan is through unconstitutional and undemocratic means. Its control over Afghanistan raises questions about the fundamental nature of international law, politics, the State’s internal governance, and issues crucial for international peace. These matters although of primary concern, however, compromised to a secondary position as their accomplishment is contingent on peace being restored and guaranteed by the class of people in the ruling hierarchy. Since the Taliban government is not recognised by many States, it puts to test, the international law criteria for recognizing the government of the State. The reluctance shown by the comity of nations in recognizing the government, further raises the related issue of international law, that how the comity of nations can create an inroad for human rights and peace in Afghanistan. The objective to establish peace in Afghanistan, by identifying the legitimacy of the Taliban regime, touches the core aspect of de jure government as recognized by international law and is also a key concern for setting the trust of Afghan people in international law and international institutions. This article sets the premise to know the position of international law, for recognising a government in a State where the change of government is not established by legal measures and therefore not recognised by other nations. Besides, the author attempts to explore the possibilities of setting the foundation and establishing human rights and related objectives for sustainable peace in Afghanistan. The author sets the dialectical discourse, for setting a roadmap to achieve peace in Afghanistan by applying international law provisions through international institutions.

INTERACTION OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW WITH BRANCHES OF PRIVATE LAW

In this article, a study is conducted on the interaction of intellectual property law with branches of private law. In particular, the interaction of intellectual property law with civil law is substantiated. Intellectual property law acts as a sub-branch of civil law, respectively, the subject of legal regulation also consists of property and personal non-property relations that develop with respect to intellectual property objects. In turn, the exclusive right to intellectual property belongs to the category of property rights, and as a subjective right is one of the objects of civil rights. Some provisions of the article are devoted to the analysis of intellectual property rights with the institute of non-contractual obligations. Often, the creation of intellectual property objects is the subject of competitive obligations, and copyright holders may be harmed as a result of torts. Exclusive rights also act as the subject of inheritance and inheritance law, exclusive rights can be the subject of hereditary legal relations, which is also reflected in the content of the article. The issues of interaction of intellectual property law with private international law are touched upon, since intellectual property law is one of the institutions of private international law, which provides for conflict-of-laws regulation of relations complicated by a foreign element [1]. The uniqueness of intellectual property rights is also manifested in connection with labor law, since the subject of interaction is relations regarding official works and inventions, which, as a rule, are determined by an employment contract, but require compliance with special legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan [1]. The article analyzes the interaction of intellectual property law with family law, since exclusive rights and intellectual property objects, being property, can be the subject of family legal relations.

Penal Battalions and Genocidal Warfare: History's Warnings, Wagner's Global Footprint, and Ukraine

The expendability of penal battalions has provided genocidal regimes with ample fodder for conventional wars, genocidal warfare, and cases in which such conscripts may become either perpetrators or victims. The unresolved charges of those who massacred civilians in Bucha, Ukraine, in 2022 extend to include suspects from a private military security company (PMSC) known as the Wagner Group. Vladimir Putin's regime has regularly contracted Wagner since its founding in 2014 in operations that led to its adaptation and development as a tool for war and very likely also the world's first for-hire band of perpetrators. This study tracks histories of penal battalions before outlining the evolution of Wagner as a significant force in global politics and conflict. The findings suggest that prosecution, prevention, or intervention will become even more difficult than it already is for institutions of international law. The apparent successes and rapid growth of Wagner tend to indicate that the use of penal battalions in genocidal wars is not confined to the pages of history. The unaccountability of such suspects could increase both the recruitment of many more genocidal offenders and further risk the expendability of what Richard L. Rubenstein identified as surplus populations. By framing penal battalions that die en masse in genocidal wars, the case of the Wagner Group may ultimately include civilian victims in Ukraine, perpetrators for-hire, and victims within the group's own battalions that the Kremlin deployed to die across the war's frontlines.

Legal Personality in International Migration: the Personological Aspect

The article examines the legal nature and content of legal subjectivity of international migrants using the cutting-edge methodology of international legal personology. The relevance of the research topic is the need to apply the personology methodology to the study of the personal component of the international legal system, especially in the context of Russian aggression which poses a threat to the lives of Ukrainian refugees. The purpose of the article is to determine the legal nature and content of international migration legal personality of a person using the latest methodology of international legal personology. The methodological basis of the study is an interdisciplinary and comprehensive approach which made it possible to formulate the conceptual framework of international migration legal personality of a person with due regard for the modern doctrine and practice of international law. The work uses a number of general theoretical and special scientific methods: objectivity; dialectical; historical and legal; formal and logical; special legal; systemic and structural; comparative legal; sociological; the person-centered method was developed by the author specifically for the study of the problems of the subject of law in general and the subject of international law in particular. It posits that the 1948 mistranslation of the traditional legal concept of “legal personality” (person before the law) as “legal subjectivity” in Article 6 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has had negative methodological consequences for domestic studies of personative legal reality. In their research, the scholars typically focused on the legal status, rights and duties of the legal subject rather than legal personality per se. The study of specific qualitative traits of legal personality (such as personative capacity, under the umbrella term of “legal capacity”, or negative capacity, in the narrow framework of criminal capacity) has been fragmentary, sporadic, and categorically vague. Only when legal personology cohered as an academic approach did it became possible to use an adequate person-centric methodology to study the personative element of any legal system. A personological analysis of the traditional concept of “legal capacity” identified three aspects: 1) normative: the capacity of a social actor to bear a legal status, possess rights and duties (normative capacity before the law); 2) personative: the capacity of a social actor to be a subject of law, a legal personality, a bearer of a personative legal form of a physical, legal or sovereign person (personative capacity before the law); 3) communicative: the capacity of a social actor to take part in legal communications, to be a party of legal relations (communicative capacity before the law). Further personological study of international migration law found that a person bears all the features of an international legal personality that possesses the corresponding sectoral personative capacity and active capacity at the universal, regional, and particular level. Meanwhile, a significant number of environmental (climate), anthropogenic and political migrants remain outside the purview of international legal regulation at the universal level, where they are conventionally referred to by the rather restrictive term “refugee”. At the regional and especially at the bilateral level, there is a risk that the generally recognised rights and fundamental freedoms of forced migrants during accelerated readmission, which underscores the necessity of academic scrutiny of this relatively new institution of international migration law.

The East Mediterranean Gas Forum: A Regional Institution Struggling in the Mire of Energy Insecurities

Abstract In January 2019, governments of several East Mediterranean countries agreed to create a new regional technical intergovernmental organization, the East Mediterranean Gas Forum (emgf). Its Statute was signed in September 2020 and came promptly into force in March 2021. The emgf was established at a time when the region’s rivalries, especially unresolved maritime issues (including questions of delimitation), were exacerbated by exploration and drilling activities in contested areas with significant fossil fuel deposits. The principal aim of the emgf is to form a sustainable and competitive regional gas market and to ensure energy security for participating countries in a volatile market, a goal of immense importance following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and in part, it is a response to unfriendly and threatening positioning by other States. But the emgf’s role may be best described as one of coordination and cooperation. Following a short overview of the maritime disputes in the Eastern Mediterranean, the article examines the emgf from the perspective of the law of international institutions. Weak provisions and lacunae in the Statute are recorded, while pertinent answers are offered. It is argued that, while the emgf is well-intentioned in a region mired in discord, it is institutionally weak and, if its operation is not improved and enhanced, it may become a largely meaningless discussion platform.

The civil process of the European Union: concept and main Features

The article concerns the concept of the civil proves of the EU. So it is established that the system of civil procedure acts of the EU consists, on the one hand, of normative legal acts that regulate the general provisions of the process, and on the other hand, of those that establish direct cooperation between the member states of the Union for the proper implementation of judicial proceedings. Such a complex has created a single legal space within which cooperation enables effective resolution of civil and commercial disputes. Analyzing the main characteristics of the EU civil process, it is noted that the policy of the EU is to respect the legal traditions of the member states, which do not violate EU law and the practice of the European Court of Human Rights. In view of this, unification of court procedures and their implementation on the basis of uniform principles. Given the broad nature of the EU civil process, it is specified that its place should not be narrowed down to an institution of private international law. In particular, this is due to that EU law has an independent and at the same time integrative character, which makes it possible to talk about its supranational character. The multi-level legal system and the presence of regulatory legal acts, which are universal for member states, are also an argument in favor of its separation from a purely domestic legal system. The next reason for such a position can be the fact that the EU Court is aseparate institution of the EU, which is empowered to consider cases, including claims by individuals and legal entities in the civil and commercial spheres, as well as the function of interpreting EU regulations. Therefore, the implementation of such judicial proceedings is determined by independence. It should also be noted that one of the EU's activities includes the development and implementation of general principles and standards of judicial proceedings for their further implementation in the civil process of both the EU and member states. In view of this, it can be seen that civil justice goes beyond the borders of only a certain country. Taking into account the outlined concepts, as well as the theoretical and practical aspects indicated in the research, in order to formulate the category of EU civil process, it is advisable to proceed from its dual nature: on the one hand, the influence of the European Union on the harmonization of the legislation of the member states with the aim of deepening cooperation between them, on the other, - the existence of a separate set of legal norms that regulate civil procedural relations. In view of this, the following definition can be proposed: EU civil process - the procedure for judicial cooperation of member states in civil and commercial cases, as well as the procedure for consideration and resolution of such cases, established by the system of EU legalacts. At the same time, the main features of the civil process of EU include: independence,which consists in the presence of separate legislation in the field of civil process and separate institutions, in particular the EU Court; subsidiarity, which defines the interaction of the EU as an association and its member states to achieve the effectiveness of the administration of justice in civil and commercial cases; is based onthe principle of proportionality of the general interest in ensuring the effectiveness of the EU civil process and the interests of the member states, which consists, inparticular, in respect for their national legislation and legal tradition. Key words: civil procedure, European Union, standards of civil procedure, EUCourt, judicial cooperation.

Деятельность международных уголовных трибуналов как эффективный механизм привлечения виновных лиц к ответственности

In the current international situation, the previously tested model of establishing military tribunals under the auspices of the UN Security Council is ambiguously perceived, and therefore there is a need for interstate post-conflict legal settlement on the basis of the countries participating in the conflict (with or without the involvement of third countries). In order to establish the basic principles of criminal prosecution and legal proceedings in this institution of international law, it is necessary to refer to the previous experience of applying the format of mili-tary tribunals: the Nuremberg trials, the Tokyo International Tribunal, the Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. In this article, a comparative study of these proceedings will be conducted, logical relationships and successive trends will be built on the examples of decisions of various tribunals and their legal foundations, the main pro-visions, positive and negative sides will be considered, and relevant requirements for modern international tribunals will be formed based on the results of previous experience in the application of international law. The obtained results of the study are a generalization of trends in the world criminal law and may form the legal basis of military tribunals in the future.

Beyond Binary Oppositions? The Elusive Identity of the International Organization in Contemporary International Law

Abstract Much of the conceptual work on international organizations situates the identity, nature or legal form of the institution between binary oppositions: ‘open’ vs ‘closed’, ‘agora’ vs ‘actor’, ‘contract’ vs ‘constitution’, etc. These oppositions are informative and revealing of tensions underpinning different aspects of international institutions: the extent to which they are vehicles for their member states versus autonomous actors in their own right; that they have limited, derivative and defined powers, but are also able to evolve and adapt to take on new competences and unforeseen powers, and so on. At the same time, insofar as many of the core doctrines of international institutional law, on e.g. personality, powers, responsibility, etc., rely most heavily on the European Union and the United Nations – arguably two of the most unique institutional structures – as evidence for these doctrinal developments, it is clear that there is something more special, unique, indeed sui generis that needs to be thrown into the conceptual mix in order to fully understand the nature and importance of international institutions in contemporary international law. In this way, I will argue, international institutions have a more complex identity and relationship with international law in which they not only exist within (closed) and as part of (open) contemporary international law, but also aim to overcome its limitations, to transform it in some way. For this reason, rather than being competing understandings of international institutions, the interplay between these kinds of binary oppositions actually only reflect back broader theoretical tensions ingrained within international law as a decentralised legal system – a condition which makes it impossible to definitely ‘pin down’ the seemingly elusive identity of the international organization. However, it is also a condition which allows for the construction of tentative hierarchies and forms of more centralised governance within international law, whilst always leaving scope (through legal form) to challenge any such pretentions to authority. This article is part of the iolr Special Forum on ‘Contested Fundamentals of the Law of International Organizations’.

Making the Legal World: Normativity and International Computational Law

The attention devoted to so-called “computational law” has grown exponentially over recent years. However, to date, there has comparatively been much less discussion about the use of data-driven methods, including artificial intelligence, in the processes and institutions of international law. This paper discusses this in terms of “international computational law” and examines what the implications could be if the normativity of technology encounters the normativity of law in the context of international law-making processes. Will it be a smooth and fortuitous alignment or a surreptitious undermining of accepted legal practices—or something in between? To critically engage with this question, a closer look is had at current and future data-driven practices in international treaty-making, the identification of international custom and international institutional lawmaking. Consequently, three types of normativity (i.e., international legal, legal and technological) are analyzed in this context, building on an analysis of the fundamental underlying structure of law. This analysis of normativity leads to the conclusion that we cannot simply assume that these types of normativity will align organically when it comes to our international legal system. I therefore conclude this article by suggesting that more research should be conducted into an adequate conception of “international legal protection by design” to thoughtfully consider how to safeguard legal protection in an increasingly computationalized international legal order. This will be crucial if we want to ensure that international law in the algorithmic age affords us legal protection and that we design our global order with thoughtfulness, rather than encodethoughtlessness.

Response to Graf

Sinja Graf’s generous reading of Marketing Global Justice is a source of immense gratitude.1 She highlights the best parts of the book and graciously sets aside its shortcomings. She expertly summarises my arguments on what marketised global justice is, how it came about, and how to resist it. Graf poses important questions under the headings of History and Resistance that are an honour to respond to. On the intervention that the book makes regarding the history of international criminal law (ICL)—as part of the history of marketised global justice—Graf poses three questions. I read these questions not only as asking for clarifications about the type of historical intervention Marketing Global Justice is making, but also as demanding a sharpening of the description of the relationship between marketised global justice and capitalism. First, Graf asks: Is there more than a temporal coincidence between neoliberal market rationality and marketised international criminal law? The short answer is: ‘yes’. Marketised international criminal law ‘encases’ the market in the sense that injustice is disassociated from (democatically determined) distributive justice. Marketised ICL is ‘put to work’ in the interests of capital. I return here to Quinn Slobodian’s memorable description of the ‘encasing’ of the market in Globalists because it so excellently describes the project of neoliberalism as one of institutions.2 What makes Slobodian’s book so immensely readable is of course the intellectual history behind these institutions. Describing familiar international institutions like the World Trade Organization (WTO) as emerging from peronal projects doggedly driven forward by certain individuals (including Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, and Ernst Ulrich Petersmann) makes for compelling reading. Like international economic law—the institutionalisation of which Slobodian describes as beginning in the wake of the First World War—ICL too has been a discipline shaped by its institutions. The monopolising of power and resources in the establishment of the WTO and the monopolisation of power and resources in the establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC) are set against the background of the same historical material conditions. They were both institutional projects preventing redistribution, and relatedly projects of keeping democracy from below at bay. Neoliberal market rationality is a part of ICL and, in the institutionalised form it has taken since the 1990s, vice versa. In other words, neoliberal market rationality and ICL are both part of the same material conditions of capitalism and its contradictions. Tracing the enabling of capital flows through the institutions of international economic law, finance, and investment law is perhaps more perspicuous; but the same conditions have also shaped ICL.

Writing a Transnational (Global?) History of Extradition Law in the Short Twentieth Century: Beyond Western-Centric Approaches

Abstract The article examines the history of extradition in the twentieth century, to call for a broader engagement with extradition law not only as an under-explored chapter in international law in its own right, but also as a pathway to think more deeply about world-ruling projects. Extradition law, normally thought of as primarily bilateral, in fact has a long and rich history of multilateral engagement. This tension between multilateralism and bilateralism, we argue, showcases the role of technique to hide political projects in international law-making, as well as showcasing the need to include more non-Eurocentric voices in our narratives about the design of international law instruments and institutions. European nations in the period we survey were more invested in bilateral efforts, claiming the impossibility of multilateral treaty-making in extradition law; yet, Latin American states successfully undertook multiple initiatives in this realm, which are often excluded from mainstream narratives, at the cost of buying into a biased narrative of bilateral treaties that neglects how extradition law has been used to shape and hide key political tensions. In light of these findings, the article puts forth a research agenda that takes extradition more seriously into our accounts of the evolution of international law.

Refusal to Recognize and Enforce Decisions of international Commercial Arbitrations on the Basis of Contradiction to Public Policy

The relevance of this study is that due to the conditions of the globalization of the world economy and the development of international commercial turnover, the importance of international commercial arbitration is rapidly increasing. There is also complexity and ambiguity in understanding the legal category of "public order" because this institution is not a definitively regulated area of law enforcement in the modern legal order. This article’s research object is the social relations arising through the activities of arbitration courts in international commercial turnover. This work aims to identify the procedures, mechanisms, and features of applying the public policy clause in recognizing and enforcing international commercial arbitration decisions. When writing this article, both general scientific research methods, including analysis, synthesis, deduction, and induction, and special methods of cognition, such as comparative legal and descriptive methods, were used. One of the main methods in this work is comparative law, as it helps identify the similarities and differences of the legal systems under consideration, which are the subject of the study. The novelty lies in consideration of the correlation of issues concerning the legal nature of "public order," as well as the analysis of cases related to the procedure of refusal to recognize and enforce decisions of international commercial arbitration in the territory of a foreign state based on contradiction to public order. In the course of the study, the following conclusions were made. The complex problems that have formed in this area are almost impossible to solve by signing and putting into effect a single normative legal act at an international level. The list of cases applying this legal category in arbitration activities is non-exhaustive. The public policy clause is one of the most important components of the institutions of private international law. The institution of public order has an extraordinary character in the decisions of international commercial arbitration.

Seeking Justice for Women: Potential and Limits of International Solidarity Movements

Abstract The contribution aims at analysing the role of international solidarity movements in seeking justice for international war crimes against women. Through the example of the ‘comfort women’ case, the article examines the ways in which these international solidarity movements have used international law instruments and institutions to promote the idea of an individual right to reparation as a means by which victims can obtain justice. Two specific legal features of this case show the international solidarity movements’ engagement with international law over the last decades: first, the establishment of the Women’s Tokyo Tribunal, and, second, the judicial mobilisation of international civil society actors before national courts. It is argued that the international solidarity movements have informed the legal concepts, paradigms, and language used to legally analyse the ‘comfort women’ case, and, to a certain extent, they have influenced some recent jurisprudential developments, especially in the legal arguments invoked by the national courts that have decided on the claims of ‘comfort women’. Ultimately, the ‘comfort women’ case demonstrates how the solidarity of international civil society actors towards a specific group of victims can be essential in order, first, to achieve post-conflict justice and, second, to progressively develop international law towards the advancement of legal standards of protection for individuals.

Organizationhood in the Light of Asian Minimalism

Abstract Asian practice of organizationhood challenges traditionally acknowledged theoretical frameworks of international institutional law. Organizationhood is usually construed as based on a set of criteria, among which are 1) creation by an international treaty, and, 2) possession of organs are upheld by a number of scholars. Yet examining a sample of fifteen Asian international organizations proves this definition too restrictive, if not dysfunctional. The conventional criterion is directly contradicted by most of these organizations displaying the marks of an international personality despite having been created with no treaty. This, in turn, impairs the efficient operation of the organic criterion since organs of these organizations do not differ in appearance from States organs acting jointly. Asian minimalism thus suggests that the classical conception of organizationhood is too narrow to subject all entities that behave as international organizations to international law through the attribution of such a status, and that broadening this concept would allow it to better ensure the effectiveness of international law.

Qui tacet consentire videtur si loqui debuisset ac potuisset v. quo tacet neque negat neque utique fatetur (he who remains silent is considered to consent, if he must and can speak v. he who remains silent neither rejects nor accepts-affirms)

The present work aims to analyze silence/acquiescence as a legal fact that constitutes a passive conduct and produces legal effects. The paper is divided into three parts. The first analyzes silence as a legal act in international law, translates the phenomenon of acquiescence and elaborates the relative doctrine and jurisprudence as well as the limits that this term presents. We continue with the acquisitive prescription and the silence in the formation of the treaties. It compares acquiescence in dispute resolution as well as the establishment of jurisdiction of international courts and tribunals. The waiver applies to the area of international responsibility of a State and the decision-making mechanisms within the opting-out procedure. Silence as a legal fact in stricto sensu integrates a qualified conduct to which the production of legal effects compose an institution of international law. The production of their legal effects contemplate the existence of an involuntary silence such as l'estoppel by silence and the extinguishing prescription. The jurisprudence from the ICJ and from arbitral awards is extensive and helps to better know and understand the institution of acquiescence and the importance that the silence of States has in contemporary international law.

Проблемы назначения и исполнения уголовных наказаний в отношении иностранных граждан и лиц без гражданства

The article analyzes the problems of imposing and enforcing criminal penalties against foreign citizens and stateless persons. The problems of implementing criminal liability in relation to foreign citizens and stateless persons have always been relevant from the standpoint of the theory of criminal and penal law, and, especially, of judicial and law enforcement practice. Every year the Russian Federation records a fairly high level of pendulum migration, which inevitably entails an increase in crime. When a criminal penalty is imposed, the absence of the citizenship of the Russian Federation significantly reduces the possibilities of the court. The extradition of convicts, as an institution of international law, is not in demand. The discrepancy between certain provisions of the criminal and penal legislation of a number of countries and the Russian Federation may ultimately create prerequisites for the release of a deported person from criminal liability.

International Organizations and World Making Practices: Some Notes on Method

Abstract In 2013, the International Law Commission (ilc) embarked on a codification project on identification of customary international law, including the role that international organizations (ios) might play in the formation of customary norms. Parallel discussions in the international law academy surrounding the role of ios reflected similar disciplinary anxieties as older debates on ios and law making. In this piece, I argue that the path to understanding ios’ governance passes neither doctrines of ios’ powers nor restrictive categories such as law making. A shift to ‘worldmaking practices’ and alternative approaches can help us diversify our subjects of enquiry and the ways in which we understand the ‘institutional’ dimension of international law. Here, I specifically focus on International Relations constructivism, Foucauldian ‘governmentality’, and critical political economy approaches. I then conclude with a discussion of international institutional law, interdisciplinarity and critique.

Towards planetary nexus governance in the Anthropocene: An earth system law perspective

AbstractNexus governance recognises that sustainability concerns such as water, energy, and food security are interlinked and provides an alternative to fragmented governance. Although it has been applied mostly in the domestic context, the need for nexus governance is also apparent at a planetary scale, as highlighted by interacting planetary boundaries, global telecoupling, and global tipping cascades. However, international environmental law is unable to facilitate what we call ‘planetary nexus governance’. This is mainly because international environmental law lacks an ecological Grundnorm and because its primary rules of conduct remain fragmented in the absence of effective secondary rules on how primary rules should relate to each other. Recognising this challenge, scholars have recently proposed earth system law as a new framework to rethink, in an integrated way, law in an Anthropocene context. Building on this framework, we suggest that international environmental law should adopt a unifying Grundnorm such as planetary integrity. We also suggest that international institutional law, as a body of secondary rules, has an important role to play in facilitating planetary nexus governance by bringing together fragmented bodies of international law. We briefly discuss ways in which international environmental law could reorientate itself to better facilitate planetary nexus governance.