scholarly journals HUMAN SECURITY AND THE “RIGHTFUL STATE”

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 35-39
Author(s):  
Crăciun Leucea
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Negative Selection ◽  
International System ◽  
Human Security ◽  
State Sovereignty ◽  
Broad Definition ◽  
Main Challenge ◽  
Selection Mechanisms

The article is based on the idea that human security concept should be understood as anopen one, accepted in its broad definition and definitely not in its narrow terms because thevariety and multilevel forms of threats to human security can manifest in manners hard toanticipate. The main challenge in promoting human security concept internationally lies in itspower to deconstruct the principle of state sovereignty which is the key-stone of thecontemporary international system and of international law and that’s the reluctance toaccepting it. But if there weren’t bad states, the human security concept wouldn’t have emerged.The point we intend to advance is that defining human security restrictively might implylegitimating sovereignty for “bad” countries in which corruption is endemic and where groupsof people who achieved power by “negative selection mechanisms” perpetrates humaninsecurity rather than security.

The Approach of the Chinese Communists to the Study of International Law, State Sovereignty and the International System

1977 ◽  
Vol 70 ◽  
pp. 315-337 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzanne Ogden
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
International System ◽  
State Sovereignty ◽  
People’S Republic Of China ◽  
People's Republic Of China ◽  
Western Tradition ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Key Terms ◽  
Legal Writers

The attitudes of Chinese Communist legal writers and political theorists towards international law, their conception of its functions, and their interpretation of the meanings of the key terms are predictably different from, and often opposed to, those of writers in the western tradition. Such differences existed before the establishment of the People's Republic of China, and they became more pronounced with the Chinese Communists' adoption of Marxism-Leninism as their official state ideology. The divergence has become increasingly centred on the concept of sovereignty, and on the assumptions as to its nature and its relationship to international law.

scholarly journals International Law, Sovereignty and the Responsibility to Protect: An Overview

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 40
Author(s):  
Thomas Prehi Botchway
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
International System ◽  
Responsibility To Protect ◽  
State Sovereignty ◽  
International Commission ◽  
Major Powers ◽  
Sovereign Equality ◽  
International Regulations ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Style Of Writing

This paper is an attempt at analysing the intricacies between international law, the concept of Responsibility to Protect and its implications for the sovereignty of modern states. The paper examines how the concept of responsibility to protect (as stipulated by the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS)) impacts on the sovereignty of states. It adopts the essay style of writing and reviews a number of documents on the subject of international law, sovereignty and the responsibility to protect. The paper consequently argues that though the ICISS claims that its “purpose is not to license aggression with fine words, or to provide strong states with new rationales for doubtful strategic designs” (ICISS, 2001, p. 35), the Commission’s very attempt to exempt the permanent five and other so-called major powers from intervention does just that whether intentionally or unintentionally. It consequently recommends that much effort should be made to address the inequalities within the international system through the formulation of appropriate policies and international regulations that address the sovereign equality of states in the international system, especially on the question of intervention.

The Family of Nations as an Element of the Ideology of Colonialism

2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 278-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harald Kleinschmidt
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
International Law ◽  
Legal Theory ◽  
International System ◽  
State Sovereignty ◽  
Technical Term ◽  
The Family

The article links the use of the concept of ‘civilisation’ with the nineteenth-century perception of the international system, for which the ‘family of nations’ was current as a technical term in international legal theory for the international legal community. Following the distinction between state sovereignty and subjecthood under international law, international legal theorists denied the latter to most states outside Europe and classed them as ‘uncivilised’, even though their governments had concluded treaties under international law with European and the us governments and had thereby been formally recognised as sovereigns. In many cases, these treaties were agreements concerning the establishment of ‘Protectorates’ as the paramount type of dependency under the control of a European or the us government. In this context, international law became the house law of the ‘Family of Nations’, which extended across the globe while denying access to it to many states.

scholarly journals Should the Responsibility to Protect be Enshrined in International Law?

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Lo
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Moral Responsibility ◽  
International Law ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International System ◽  
Responsibility To Protect ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
State Sovereignty ◽  
The Stability

While states admit a moral responsibility to take action against states that violate human rights and international criminal law, international law does not create any legally binding obligations on states to prevent or punish violators of human rights. Yet, enshrining the “responsibility to protect” in international law will only threaten the stability of the international system that has long operated based on the norm of state sovereignty and the principle of non-interference.

The Bridging Capacity of Realist Constructivism: The Normative Evolution of Human Security and the Responsibility to Protect

2020 ◽  
pp. 171-192
Author(s):  
Andreea Iancu
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Security ◽  
International System ◽  
Human Security ◽  
Responsibility To Protect ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
State Sovereignty ◽  
The Core ◽  
Security Discourse ◽  
Core Practices

This chapter is an inquiry into the evolution and implementation of the controversial norm of responsibility to protect in the international community, with respect to the effects it produces in international customary law. It looks into the changes in the security discourse induced by the norms that emphasize human rights, which impact the core practices of the international system, as reasons for intervention, international security, and state sovereignty. It traces the normative evolution of human-centered principles, by identifying their commonalities, their institutional markers, and their presence in the discourse of international actors. The chapter scrutinizes the international community’s internalization of the normative frameworks of human security and the responsibility to protect by testing them on two hard cases; the conflicts in Libya and Syria.

scholarly journals International migration: The state-sovereignty-migration nexus

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Chigudu
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
The State ◽  
Human Migration ◽  
International Standards ◽  
State Sovereignty ◽  
Host Countries ◽  
Irregular Migrants ◽  
Main Challenge

Commonly, international human migration is blamed for corroding states sovereignty, especially stemming from policy circles, academic literature and citizens of the host countries. This has attracted the attention of the media highlighting hazards of being a migrant, with some countries viewing migrants as enemies; and, Cuba provides a vivid case. Yet in other countries, migrants are viewed as important contributors to social and economic development, with Mexico, the Dominican Republic and India serving as examples. This article locates migrants in the framework of human rights as guided by international law without prejudice to the demands of state sovereignty, but linking the two in the context of developing international standards. Migration is seen as a feature of human history dating back to primordial time. Nothing appears surprising in the movement of people across borders, defining a migrant through emigration and immigration while giving due respect to the sovereignty of states, both sending and receiving. The article discusses the nexus between migrants and state sovereignty in order to highlight the mutual benefit grounded in international law. It attempts to portray a more positive image of the migrant person in light of the global world, socio-economic development and human rights fundamentals. The main challenge remains that of implementing human rights, which appear to be at the crossroads of individual rights and state sovereignty. The paper reveals how the challenge can be overcome while maintaining the structure of rights and freedoms without infringement on states’ sovereignty. It concludes that migrants remain on the periphery of effective protection from the vagaries of the citizens, partly because the state has a tendency to confine certain rights to its citizenry. States possess discretionary authority to control the ingress of foreign nationals into their territories though sometimes they fail to do that as evidenced by hundreds of millions of irregular migrants around the world. The paper reveals that, the symbiotic relationship between migrants, regular or irregular, and state sovereignty should be strengthened.

Legitimacy

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
The State ◽  
State Sovereignty ◽  
International Courts ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
State Legitimacy ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Supranational Institutions

This collection brings together scholars of jurisprudence and political theory to probe the question of ‘legitimacy’. It offers discussions that interrogate the nature of legitimacy, how legitimacy is intertwined with notions of statehood, and how legitimacy reaches beyond the state into supranational institutions and international law. Chapter I considers benefit-based, merit-based, and will-based theories of state legitimacy. Chapter II examines the relationship between expertise and legitimate political authority. Chapter III attempts to make sense of John Rawls’s account of legitimacy in his later work. Chapter IV observes that state sovereignty persists, since no alternative is available, and that the success of the assortment of international organizations that challenge state sovereignty depends on their ability to attract loyalty. Chapter V argues that, to be complete, an account of a state’s legitimacy must evaluate not only its powers and its institutions, but also its officials. Chapter VI covers the rule of law and state legitimacy. Chapter VII considers the legitimation of the nation state in a post-national world. Chapter VIII contends that legitimacy beyond the state should be understood as a subject-conferred attribute of specific norms that generates no more than a duty to respect those norms. Chapter IX is a reply to critics of attempts to ground the legitimacy of suprastate institutions in constitutionalism. Chapter X examines Joseph Raz’s perfectionist liberalism. Chapter XI attempts to bring some order to debates about the legitimacy of international courts.

Territorial Sovereignty

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Stilz
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
International Law ◽  
International System ◽  
Core Values ◽  
The State ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Territorial Sovereignty ◽  
Collective Self ◽  
Political Units ◽  
Territorial States

This book offers a qualified defense of a territorial states system. It argues that three core values—occupancy, basic justice, and collective self-determination—are served by an international system made up of self-governing, spatially defined political units. The defense is qualified because the book does not actually justify all of the sovereignty rights states currently claim and that are recognized in international law. Instead, the book proposes important changes to states’ sovereign prerogatives, particularly with respect to internal autonomy for political minorities, immigration, and natural resources. Part I of the book argues for a right of occupancy, holding that a legitimate function of the international system is to specify and protect people’s preinstitutional claims to specific geographical places. Part II turns to the question of how a state might acquire legitimate jurisdiction over a population of occupants. It argues that the state will have a right to rule a population and its territory if it satisfies conditions of basic justice and facilitates its people’s collective self-determination. Finally, Parts III and IV of this book argue that the exclusionary sovereignty rights to control over borders and natural resources that can plausibly be justified on the basis of the three core values are more limited than has traditionally been thought.

Latin America’s Evolving Contribution to Peaceful Change in the International System

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold A. Trinkunas
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
International Law ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
International System ◽  
Regional Organizations ◽  
International Courts ◽  
Interstate Disputes ◽  
System P ◽  
Soft Balancing ◽  
Interstate System

Latin America has long aspired for an interstate system based on the principles of nonintervention and adherence to international law. Over time, the region has become increasingly free of war, and interstate disputes are frequently settled via diplomacy or by international courts. But it has achieved a largely “negative” peace as peaceful relations in the region are neither the result of nor have produced deeper commercial integration, effective regional organizations, or epistemic security communities. This chapter examines realist, liberal, and constructivist explanations to explain the sources of peace and peaceful change in Latin America, as well as how structural changes in the international system have affected the region. In particular, it analyzes how Latin America’s relative weakness in terms of material capabilities has led it to rely on diplomacy, “soft balancing,” and norms entrepreneurship in international law to secure its interest in a progressively more peaceful and rule-bound international order.

Perspectives canadiennes de droit international public et privé relatives à la maîtrise du territoire

1991 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 29-116
Author(s):  
Gerald Goldstein
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Free Trade Agreement ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
State Sovereignty ◽  
Effective Control ◽  
Territorial Disputes ◽  
Real Property ◽  
Full Account ◽  
Global Policy ◽  
Droit International

SummaryState sovereignty manifests itself through all the powers a state exercises over its territory: it is one of the basic components of sovereignty according to international law. Sovereign power involves controlling territory with a degree of efficiency sufficient to prove the existence of the state. But according to some, state sovereignty has now become less and less a matter of territorial control, and international law is now witnessing an erosion of the significance of territory. While the author admits the plausibility of this opinion when applied to states belonging to closely linked economic unions as the EEC, he challenges this statement when applied to Canada, even given the framework of the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement. In Part I, this article gives a full account of the Canadian positions dealing with legally valid acquisition of territories through effective control and other means. It points out how Canada has been coherently committed to protect its territorial sovereignty in all the border and territorial disputes in which it was and is still involved. It explores how this country deliberately also committed itself to effectively controlling its vast terrestrial, aerial, and maritime territories.From this perspective, the author exposes in Part II the rather protective Canadian legal attitude when dealing with private international interests in Canada: how foreign investors are selectively allowed to own, control, possess, or otherwise acquire an interest in any part of Canadian land or real property through specific substantial rules or conflict of law rules; how Canadian federal and provincial laws deal with expropriating foreign-owned property or with foreign judgments affecting the same. In the view of the author, all these territorialist features strongly convey the idea that Canada still attributes a prime role to securing close control over its territory within its global policy of sovereignty and independence.

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