Perfecting Sovereignty?

Author(s):  
Chris Armstrong

This chapter examines the idea that our priority ought to be to reform the international trade in resources so as to deliver on popular resource sovereignty, and to deliver upon an ideal of ‘public accountability’ in resource sales. It suggests that ‘accountability’ reforms have some promise, but cannot be considered a replacement for more ambitious egalitarian reforms. Indeed, it shows that we have reason to be cautious about those reforms, in light of their likely effects. It also shows that public accountability and popular sovereignty are not unambiguously enshrined in international law. This reduces the supposed pragmatic advantage of accountability reforms, and their purported superiority over more ambitious egalitarian reforms.

Author(s):  
Hermann Heller

This 1927 work addresses the paradox of sovereignty, that is, how the sovereign can be both the highest authority and subject to law. Unlike Kelsen and Schmitt who seek to dissolve the paradox, this text sees the tensions that the paradox highlights as an essential part of a society ruled by law. Sovereignty, in the sense of national sovereignty, is often perceived in liberal democracies today as being under threat, or at least “in transition,” as power devolves from nation states to international bodies. This threat to national sovereignty is at the same time considered a threat to a different idea of sovereignty, popular sovereignty—the sovereignty of “the people”—as important decisions seem increasingly to be made by institutions outside of a country’s political system or by elite-dominated institutions within. This text was written in 1927 amidst the very similar tensions of the Weimar Republic. In an exploration of history, constitutional and political theory, and international law, it shows that democrats must defend a legal idea of sovereignty suitable for a pluralistic world.


Author(s):  
Surya P Subedi

This chapter discusses the development and current state of international investment law, which encompasses international finance law, international trade law, international investment law, and regional economic trade agreements. Recent progressions in the area of international financial law, international trade law, and investment law demonstrate that other areas of international regulation have a decisive influence on international investment law. Moreover, international investment law is more increasingly focused on development concerns. International investment law is currently going through an exciting phase in its development. It has now become one of the fastest changing areas of international law with exciting and far-reaching implications for both investment-receiving and investment-exporting countries, thanks to enterprising claimants and innovative interpretations and expansive approaches adopted by international investment tribunals. This chapter seeks to capture the law and the recent trends in both State practice and jurisprudence in this area of international law.


2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 145
Author(s):  
Shila Taheri ◽  
Hassan Soleimani

The present study is an attempt to analyze the executive guaranty of arbitration at international law within internal Iranian law and the international law. The present research findings show that within internal law in case the arbitration verdict is not carried out voluntarily then its obligatory administration is under the support of law and has legal executive guaranty. But arbitration privilege at administration stage is not limited to the fact that any arbitration verdict is to be performed without any questioning but a significant aspect of this privilege is to prevent the administration of a verdict which is altered or creased and openly against the facts or the law. In international law the international commerce chamber arbitration system is the most important international trade arbitration system in contemporary period and has always been the influential forerunner in international arbitration and has had a significant role in the development and expansion of arbitration method of settling international trade disputes. Both the chamber arbitration rules and arbitration verdicts which are issued under the chamber arbitration framework are among the most important legal resources in terms of international arbitration and are considered as the constructive and formative factors of international arbitration procedure. It should be mentioned that commerce chamber arbitration organization lacks the executive tools to execute the arbitration verdicts. But in spite of that on the basis of arbitration rules article 35 the arbitration authority and the chamber arbitration court makes attempts to execute the verdict and the purpose is mostly the official measures rather than judicial or administrative. Principally, the execution of arbitration verdicts depend on state rules and regulations where from the identification and administration of verdict is requested.


2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Picker

To the extent that international trade and development policy employs legal methods, institutions and participants, there is a need to take into account the role of legal culture. There are many different legal cultures in the world, including the widely found common and civil law traditions, as well as the many non-western legal traditions and sub-traditions found within the hundreds of different legal systems spread across the globe. International law has, however, traditionally eschewed consideration of legal culture—arguing that international law is unique, is sui generis, and as such domestic legal traditions were not relevant. Yet, the humans involved in creating and nurturing international legal fields and institutions will themselves reflect the legal culture of their home states, and will often import aspects of those legal cultures into international law. The same must be true of international development law. In addition, international legal fields, such as international development law, must often work within domestic legal systems, and as such they will directly interact with the domestic legal traditions. It is thus important to understand the interaction between the legal cultures reflected in the relevant part of that international law and in that of the domestic legal system. Such an understanding can be useful in ensuring the effective interaction of the two systems. This paper explores these themes, continuing the author’s past and ongoing consideration of the role of legal culture in international law, including its role within institutions such as the World Trade Organization.


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