International Legal Order Research Articles

The Role and Influence of International Organizations in Shaping and Maintaining International Legal Order and Global General and Financial Security

Objective: This article delves into the functions and distinctive features of major international organizations, with a primary focus on the United Nations (UN), European Union (EU), Council of Europe (CoE), Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and World Trade Organization (WTO). It provides a clear definition of international organizations as voluntary associations among states with specific objectives while examining the factors contributing to their formation.
 
 Methods: The study employs a range of research methods, including a comprehensive analysis of existing literature, statistical comparisons to elucidate key concepts like "legal order," "international legal order," "international security," and "global security." It employs a historical perspective to trace the evolution of international organizations and utilizes generalization and diagnostic methods to offer practical recommendations and conclusions.
 
 Results: Global security concerns encompass various domains such as public health, environmental sustainability, energy security, and more. This article underscores the distinction between "international security" and "global security," emphasizing the latter's more encompassing scope. Furthermore, it highlights the central role played by the United Nations (UN) in preserving global peace, nurturing friendly relations among nations, promoting international cooperation, and serving as a platform for harmonizing diverse national actions.
 
 Conclusions: International organizations, most notably the UN, assume a pivotal role in upholding the international legal order and safeguarding global security against the backdrop of dynamically evolving challenges and threats.

What Shaming Reveals: Examining Qatar’s Response to Being Shamed as the Host of the 2022 FIFA Men’s World Cup

AbstractThis Article considers how the ranking of states, as perpetuated by the international legal order, may play a role in the considerations of those targeted by global naming and shaming campaigns. To do so, it examines Qatar’s response to being shamed in the lead up to and during the 2022 FIFA Men’s World Cup. Drawing from international relations literature on status and adopting a critical approach to unpack the prevalence of the hierarchal structuring of states in the contemporary international legal order, the Article claims that the practice of shaming, as a human rights enforcement strategy, inevitably pushes target states to question their status within the international legal community. This could, counterproductively, lead to negative outcomes for the rights of the very individuals these campaigns seek to protect. Furthermore, the Article sketches out a theoretical argument for why certain states may consider the enactment of cosmetic legal reforms to be an attractive strategy for countering a global shaming campaign.

The Human Rights-Based Constitutionalization of Global Environmental Protection: A Framework for Action and Understanding

Abstract The underlying premise of a global constitutional order is dictated by the singular, unitary nature of the environment, a deeply interdependent whole. This premise aside, international environmental law, as we know it today, is far from constituting an international constitutional order. Rather, it presents a broad set of principles and mixed legal and political commitments of states dispersed in a myriad of international instruments possessing varying degrees of formality, legal status, scope of regulation, and effect. Its unparalleled dispersion, organizational and regulatory flexibility, and overall indeterminate features of normative content and procedure are neither improbable nor inconceivable for a relatively new genre of international legal regulation, namely the environment. Simply put, a consolidated international legal order as it ordinarily exists in other arenas is missing in the case of the environment. In shaping its contents and effects, a new institutional ally is found in national and regional judicial bodies, which instead rely on human rights to ground their decisions in pursuit of climate goals and aspirations. The ensuing result is that framing the order that will govern the global environmental change, resort must be made to the models already fashioned by the practice of national and regional systems. Ultimately, this article proposes the principal parameters of a constitutional order for the environment.

The Position of the European Security Architecture within the International Legal Order

Abstract With the universal architecture for peace and security centred upon the UN Charter of 1945 and the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1968 being built on great power foundations, there are manifest problems when there is no consensus amongst those great powers in the face of existential threats to peace and security. The question considered in this article is whether the European Security Architecture (ESA), consisting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the European Union (EU), can forge a different and distinct path that can provide security for States and individuals while remaining within the international rule of law. In contrast to the executive-dominated universal collective security system, power and authority in the ESA are much more diffuse, fluid and overlapping, with a mixture of foundational documents ranging from the constitutional/supranational (the EU), contractual (NATO) and political (the OSCE), as well as a range of overlapping competences, powers and practice in: peaceful settlement; the promotion of human rights and democracy; the enforcement of fundamental rules of international law by non-forcible measures; collective defence commitments; crisis management; and nuclear deterrence. The ESA, though less constitutional in a hierarchical sense when compared to the UN/NPT system, promises greater connection between security and law, but is it capable of deterring and confronting naked aggression and other egregious violations of international law?

The seabed and the South: from stock stories to new histories of international lawmaking

Centring the career of Cameroonian diplomat Paul Bamela Engo during the negotiation of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, this article makes a methodological intervention in the historiography of multilateral treaty-making. It reads through and against the grain of dominant narratives of oceanic constitution-making, and offers counter-narratives that serve as conceptual and mobilizational resources in contemporary struggles. It examines how the ‘stock story’ of the emergence of the resource regime for seabed minerals as the common heritage of mankind erases the radical alternatives that were proposed by Third World actors and their efforts to write them into law, and sorts these actors into trope-laden categories of ‘extremist’ and ‘moderate’. Against this, and building on critical race theorist Richard Delgado’s exploration of counterstorytelling, this article traces histories that position Third World diplomats and lawyers as intellectual innovators and rival worldmakers. Extending the field of international intellectual history, and examining international lawmaking conferences as a political form, these histories link UNCLOS to wider anticolonial and worldmaking projects. Connecting analyses at multiple spatial and temporal scales, such histories also offer an empirically-grounded approach to the agency and structural constraints of Third World actors negotiating international legal orders, and illuminate international lawmaking as a promising site for global history.

Comparative Analysis of Criminal Liability for the Crime of Desertion in Ukraine and in the International Legal Order

According to the Constitution of Ukraine, the protection of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, ensuring its economic and information security are the most important functions of the state and the business of the entire Ukrainian people. The defence of Ukraine, protection of its sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability are entrusted to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. One of the most important issues at the present stage (during the russian-Ukrainian war) of our country's development is the reform of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, transition to a new qualitative and professional level, to an improved legislative framework, which, in turn, requires a review of the current military legislation, the establishment of new military legal norms based on the rich experience of developed and promising modern countries. One of the important methods of scientific knowledge is comparative, which is most often used in criminal law research. Moreover, the use of the comparative legal method is extremely important given our country's aspirations for European integration and full membership in the European Union. Among the fundamental social values protected by criminal law, an important place is occupied by the country's defence capability, which is an important guarantee of the key attributes of the state: unity, sovereignty and independence. Desertion is a criminal offence and is considered by the military to be one of the most serious forms of breach of military duty. Desertion has also proved to be a controversial and emotionally charged socio-political issue. Although in peacetime desertion usually receives little attention, emotions can run high in times of conflict or crisis when a nation relies on its military to ensure peace or even to fight for its survival. This article provides a comprehensive analysis of criminal liability for the criminal offence of desertion under Article 408 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, taking into account legislative changes that have been made to both the General and Special Parts of the current Criminal Code of Ukraine. The author also provides a comparative analysis of criminal liability for the crime of desertion under the Criminal Code of Ukraine, as well as an analysis of criminal liability for the said crime under the laws of other countries. The author also actively emphasises the unacceptably low number of scientific publications on the legal regulation of desertion as a war crime in Ukraine compared to the imposition of punishment and criminal liability for committing such a crime, especially during martial law.

Civic Action Against Son Preference in Tirupati, India: Critical International Law Put into Practice?

AbstractIn this paper based on original fieldwork, I seek to contribute to critical scholarship in international law by providing an investigation into the engagement with international law by actors in civil society working against son preference primarily in Tirupati, India. I suggest that the turn to the international legal order by civic actors should be theorized as something else than as merely coming ‘from above’, ‘from below’ or as a ‘translation’ of ‘global’ law to ‘local’ conditions. Instead, I propose that the mobilization of international law within Tirupati’s civil society should be seen as an emancipatory undertaking, an act of resistance with the overarching ambition to reclaim the zenana. In that, I argue, the strategies within Tirupati’s civil society are more appropriately understood as critical international law put into practice.

Propuesta de unificación procesal penal internacional

This research addresses the issue of the unification of the criminal process, based on the idea of many intellectuals of being able to build an international legal order that harmonizes the procedural norms by virtue of which it is necessary to investigate, accuse and judge the people who commit in conducts that can be considered crimes. Although the proposal may have defenders and detractors, nowadays so many doctrinal foundations are not required to support the claim to unify the Law. The universe has shown signs of legal unity in Latin America and Europe, and international instruments on human rights and model procedural codes have also been approved, which serve as the basis for the creation of procedural codes in the states. In the procedural sphere, there is consensus that the problems of crime in the international community are similar and the general rules of criminal procedure with which crime must be faced are similar. At the beginning of the research, the relationship between Comparative Law and procedural Unification is referred to and finally a proposal of methodological and structural principles that can contribute to the alleged legal unity is made.

MACHIAVELLI’S CONCEPTUALIZATION OF HEGEMONY AND POWER IN RELATION WITH INTERNATIONAL LEGAL THOUGHT

In this paper, the conceptualizations of the power and hegemony of Machiavelli are discussed based on the formation of international legal thought and international order. These conceptualizations are analyzed based on Machiavelli’s pieces, the Prince and Discourses which were written by Machiavelli between 1512-1517. Machiavelli studied these concepts to search for unity and order as a solution to devastating conflicts. One of the most important characteristics of Machiavelli in his political understanding depends on his transcendence of the period he had lived. In his thinking and conceptualization, he used the observation method and followed up his experiences. Despite his usage of observation, methodology, and experiences in the production and configuration of his basic concepts, he introduced and configured political concepts differently from the existing circumstances of his period. In Machiavelli’s conceptualization of power and hegemony, it is seen that the prevention of the eruption of conflict is the goal. In this paper, whether Machiavelli’s conceptualization of power and hegemony provides a framing of international legal thought as a basis for the formation of an acceptable international legal order is discussed.

Current Problems of the Interaction Between International Law and the European Union Law

The objective of this article is to analyze the problems of the interaction between International Law and the Law of the European Union. In particular, attention is paid to the study of "traditionalist" and "autonomist" approaches to the relationship between International Law and EU Law, the place of EU Law in the international legal order and the international legal aspects of the interaction of EU law and the law of the EU Member States. In the investigation, dialectical, legal-comparative, historical and logical-formal methods were used. As a result of the analysis, it was concluded that the relationship between EU Law and International Law is difficult to fit into any of the traditional models. On the one hand, EU Law was formed as a component of International Law. On the other hand, although the EU legal order was created on the basis of international treaties, in the process of its development it acquired certain characteristics that are, to a certain extent, characteristic of national legal orders.

International Community? What International Community?

Abstract The expression “international community” is ubiquitous in international legal instruments, government policies, jurisprudence and scholarship. Yet, its meaning, significance and repercussions in international law are still unclear. The departing point of the analysis is the horizontal or decentralized character of the international legal order, which lacks any authorities above States and has traditionally been the kingdom of bilateralism. In the second part of the XX Century, however, States moved beyond bilateralism and accepted the existence of obligations owned to the international community as a whole. The paper looks at such historical development from three different perspectives: (a) the definition(s) of “international community” in State practice and its possible identification with the United Nations; (b) the legal implications of the emergence in international jurisprudence and practice of obligations owned to the international community as a whole, as celebrated in the Barcelona Traction Case (1970); and (c) the rules governing international responsibility for breaches of those obligations, which were not completely defined in the International Law Commission’s Articles on State Responsibility (2001).

Moving ‘red lines’: The Russian–Ukrainian war and the pragmatic (mis-)use of international law

AbstractThe Russian invasion of Ukraine has widely been seen as a failure of the international legal order, which could neither stop Russia from launching a war of aggression, nor prevent the perpetration of international crimes. In such a reading, great power politics have (once again) trumped international law. We argue instead that international law plays a crucial part in the conflict by providing a semantic infrastructure, which the opposing parties use to justify their actions, try to re-draw limits of permissible action and negotiate changing ‘red lines’ with the enemy. Drawing on the notion of lawfare, we show how the pragmatic (mis-)use of international law flexibly delineates boundaries and stabilizes expectations between adversaries even as they are contested in the current war. We focus on claims about self-determination and self-defence to justify the use of force; categorizations of combatants; and weapons transfers and the status of third states. That international law can be violated or reinterpreted to breaking point does not make it irrelevant. To the contrary, it recalls its important role as a language of conflict and compromise, beyond strictly legalist as well as dismissive realist views.

The Significance and Role of Natural Law Doctrine in the Development of International Law

Natural law, which has played a significant role in the formation and development of international law, continues to be a subject of debate due to the specific definition of it sessence as a legal ideology that transforms depending on the course of history and the tasks set in this process. This ideology is an integral part of legal thought exclusively within Western civilization, the creation of which began with the encounter of Medieval Europe, represented by the Catholic Church, with the ancient philosophy of Ancient Greece, particularly Stoicism, which was utilized by Ancient Rome in the formation of jusgentium as a component of Roman law by magistrates. It was particularly during this period that the doctrine of natural law, in line with the Romans' understanding of jusgentium as a universal law for all of humanity, acquired a universal significance and continues to be one of the pillars of Western legal thought to this day. The spiritual, social, and political revolution in Europe marked by the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the rise of nation-states reshaped the concept of natural law,presenting it as a product of human intellect, namely, as human reason. Consequently,a new philosophical foundation emerged to justify international law among sovereign states, solidified by the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The new paradigm of relations between states, influenced by the doctrine of natural law, found expression in Hugo Grotius' system of international law, characterized by objective causal connections. In this system, the doctrine of natural law underwent a shift where the postulates of God,while remaining recognized as a basis for its application, lost their decisive significance that characterized the medieval period. The subsequent stages of the development of international law, gradually assuming a contractual character, are associated with the abandonment of the ideology ofnatural law, which in the 19th century was entirely replaced by theories of positivism such as empiricism, pragmatism, and logical positivism. After World War II, a process of "rebirth of positive law" is observed, characterized by the emergence of human rights protection at the international level, the functioning of the international judicial system, and the necessity of interpreting customary international law and general principles of law. Discussions surrounding the principles of the Nuremberg Tribunal Statute, adopted in 1945, have become a significant factor in the reassessment of natural law ideology. Various, often contradictory, views regarding the content and form of natural law compared to the positive norms of international law continue to be expressed. The current crisis of international order and, consequently, international law it selfis leading to the emergence of separate economic and political enclaves, signifying a decline in the importance of universalism in international relations and marking the culmination of the revival period of natural law doctrine. This transition also demonstrates a shift towards a new form of regionalism independent of the UN Charter. Key words: Roman law, jus gentium, nature law, international legal order,international law, international law philosophy, crisis of international relations andinternational law.

The Kanu Saga: International Legal Order and Extradition to Nigeria

The Kanu Saga: International Legal Order and Extradition to Nigeria

Legal and Procedural Issues arising from the Expulsion of the Russian Federation from the Council of Europe

Summary On 16 March 2022, the Russian Federation’s membership in the Council of Europe was terminated with immediate effect on account of its aggression against Ukraine. The purpose of this article is twofold. First, to analyze the content of the suspension and expulsion clause in the Council of Europe Statute (Article 8), to put it into context with three other relevant provisions, namely the clause on Member States’ obligations (Article 3), the withdrawal clause (Article 7) and the clause on suspension due to the non-payment of compulsory contributions (Article 9). Second, to argue that the way the Russian Federation was expelled as well as the consequences of its expulsion, raise several legal and procedural issues. Among them, whether it should have been given the opportunity to justify the use of force against Ukraine; whether, as stipulated in Article 8, it should have been requested to voluntarily withdraw before having its membership terminated; which were the effects of the Russian Federation’s announcement that it will withdraw, which was made before it was expelled; and whether the decision that it remains a party to the European Convention on Human Rights until mid-September 2022 was legally sound. The article will also argue that the rule of law, one of the Council of Europe’s cornerstones, has a wider application than a principle to be respected by Member States and forms part of its internal legal order.

Interaction of paradigms of international human rights law and international humanitarian law through the prism of obligations of the occupying power

Falalіeіeva Liudmyla. Interaction of paradigms of international human rights law and international humanitarian law through the prism of obligations of the occupying power The article highlights theoretical and practical significance of complying or ensuring compliance with the norms of international human rights law in occupied territories and the obligations of the occupying power in accordance with international humanitarian law. Being distinct and having different implementation mechanisms, these bodies of law are applied in parallel, complementing each other to ensure proper protection of guaranteed rights. This study reveals the essence of and peculiarities of the interaction between the paradigms of these two fields of international law, as one of the most important factors contributing to the fulfillment by the states of their obligations to observe/protect human rights, especially fundamental rights in times of armed conflicts, for instance, during Russian unprovoked aggression against Ukrainein its existential and civilizational dimensions, and during the occupation. The applicability of international human rights law in the context of armed conflicts and occupation is highlighted. The article includes analysis of the legal regime of occupation, especially the obligations of the occupying power. It assesses the existing problems with the fulfillment of such obligations by the Russian Federation as the occupying power,which destroys the national identity of Ukrainians and weakens their European identity in the parts of the territories of Ukraine that are being temporarily occupied. The article includes proposals how to overcome these and other related problems. The author concludes by noting that compliance with the obligations under international human rights law in the occupied territories, as well as with the obligations of the occupying power under the law of occupation, internationonal humanitarian law, with respect to various categories of human rights, constitute acomplex and multifaced issue. The Ukrainian doctrine of international law already examines this issue in an interdisciplinary dimension, specifically by analyzing the limits of the rights and obligations of the occupying power in the context of fulfillingits obligations as concerns human dignity and human rights. The scientific researches into the issues related to the scope, nature and limitations of such obligations, legal instruments for their implementation and response in case of their violation can become the theoretical and methodological basis for the development of conceptual approaches to the establishment of relevant practices aimed to ensure that human rights are applied and respected during armed conflicts and occupation. Similarly they can serve as a basis for improvement of the existing mechanisms of bringing states to international legal responsibility for committing internationally wrongful acts and violations of international obligations to observe/protect human rights, given that the latter form the hard core of the civilizational values. Civilizational values embody the universal nature of human rights. They most fully reflect the achievements of mankindin this area and are of the pivotal methodological and practical significance for construction and establishment of an optimal post-war model of international legal order. Key words: international human rights law, international humanitarian law,principle of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, principle of non-useof force or the threat of force, armed conflict, regime of occupation, civilians, humanrights, fundamental rights, international treaties, international obligations, international standards, European integration, European identity.

Formation of legal support of climate-protective farming in Ukraine: problems under martial period

Formation of legal support of climate-protective farming in Ukraine: problems under martial period

The law and practice of international organizations’ interactions with personal data protection domestic regulation: At the crossroads between the international and domestic legal orders

The development and overlap of legal frameworks on personal data protection, on the one hand, by states and regional frameworks like the EU General Data Protection Regulation, and on the other hand, by International Organizations, raises fundamental questions about their coexistence and interaction, including questions concerning the interaction between the domestic and the international legal orders.This article considers how these different legal frameworks come into interaction and tension with each other, as well as how these tensions are addressed in the law and practice of International Organizations and in domestic laws.It reveals the pragmatism of a resulting approach which seeks to ensure effective protection of the fundamental right to personal data protection while respecting the need for IOs to be able to perform their mandate under international law in full independence.

Exit from Nuremberg to the Hague: The Malabo Protocol and the Pan-African Road to Arusha

Abstract In adopting the Malabo Protocol and creating the African Court of Justice and Human Rights, the African Union has established the first ever regional court with international criminal jurisdiction. This milestone signals once again, the role of African institutions in creating and developing norms in international politics. Yet, both International Relations (IR) theories and debates and official narratives of the historiography of the international legal order tend to omit the sustained contributions of African states and institutions. Echoes of the African Union (AU)’s efforts to define and codify crimes that are of concern to its constituents can be found in the African states’ interventions at the International Law Commission during the 1980s and the negotiations that lead to the creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the 1990s. This article argues that beyond the critique and skepticism about the Malabo Protocol and the AU’s agenda, there is a sustained vision and trajectory that underlies African agency in norms creation and attempts to usher in an international legal order that speaks more directly and equitably to the concerns of the continent. Ultimately, I propose a genealogy of those Pan-African visions for an embedded international justice system that provides a fundamental corrective to the Nuremberg to The Hague narrative.

Criminal and legal protection of servicemen and employees of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine against illegal offenses committed in the line of their service activities

The legal grounds for the criminal and legal protection of servicemen and employees of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine against illegal offences committed in the line of their service duties and the peculiarities of law enforcement activities in this area have been examined in the article. An analysis of the legislation norms on criminal responsibility, national judicial practice and decisions of the European Court of Human Rights regarding the protection of the border guards from illegal offences committed in the line of their official activities has been carried out. Much attention is drawn to the peculiarities of the legal status of servicemen and employees’ personnel of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, who at the same time should be recognized as employees of a law enforcement agency, that should be taken into account when qualifying criminal offenses related to illegal infringements against them. The concept of criminal legal protection of servicemen and employees of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine has been formed. It has been determined that military personnel and employees of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine are special victims of a number of criminal offenses committed in the line of their service activities against the authority of state power bodies, the established military service order, peace, human security and the international legal order. A classification of criminal offenses related to infringements against servicemen and employees of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine has been carried out on the basis of a number of criteria. The norms of the General Part of the Criminal Code of Ukraine aimed at increasing the protection of servicemen and employees of law enforcement agencies have been determined. The obligation of the state to ensure proper legal regulation of service activities and a high level of officers’ law enforcement training has been argued.