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International Law's Erie Moment, Harlan Grant Cohen
International Law's Erie Moment, Harlan Grant Cohen
Michigan Journal of International Law
The episode put the question starkly: Who fills the gaps in international law and how? A series of tribunals operating under Chapter 11 of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) had adopted broader interpretations of vague treaty language than those recommended by the state parties. In response, government ministers from the three state parties, Mexico, Canada, and the United States, operating through the Free Trade Commission (FTC) established by the treaty, adopted "Notes of Interpretation" clarifying their view of the treaty's meaning. International tribunals are generally tasked with examining state practice, either to recognize rules of customary international law …
The Use Of Article 31(3)(C) Of The Vclt In The Case Law Of The Ecthr: An Effective Anti-Fragmentation Tool Or A Selective Loophole For The Reinforcement Of Human Rights Teleology?, Vassilis P. Tzevelekos
The Use Of Article 31(3)(C) Of The Vclt In The Case Law Of The Ecthr: An Effective Anti-Fragmentation Tool Or A Selective Loophole For The Reinforcement Of Human Rights Teleology?, Vassilis P. Tzevelekos
Michigan Journal of International Law
In Part I the Article will briefly introduce the question of the fragmentation of international law, and will more extensively delineate the role that the ILC attributed to Article 31(3)(c) and the ILC's expectations regarding its success in this role. Next, Part II will give an overview of the special elements of the ECHR socio-normative environment, which gave rise to the case law into which Article 31(3)(c) came into force. The Article will argue that, in addition to benefiting from the very special nature of the ECHR, the Strasbourg Court also has a significant number of interpretative tools that allow …
Fragmentation In A Positive Light, Bruno Simma
Fragmentation In A Positive Light, Bruno Simma
Michigan Journal of International Law
The organizers of the present symposium demonstrated a keen sense of topicality when they chose "Diversity or Cacophony? New Sources of Norms in International Law?" as the subject-matter of the 25th Anniversary Symposium of the Michigan Journal of International Law. For the last decade or so, the question whether the international legal order finds itself in the process of fragmentation, and if so, what the consequences of this development will be, has been a popular area of study for many jurists; most of them expressing their concern about what they consider to constitute a threat to the unity of …
Commentary To Professor Hafner, Annika Tahvanainen
Commentary To Professor Hafner, Annika Tahvanainen
Michigan Journal of International Law
This Comment is a response to Professor Hafner's presentation in which he considered fragmentation as an unavoidable consequence of the increasing number of norms and judicial mechanisms, as well as of the regionalization of international law and the weakening of the state system.
Pros And Cons Ensuing From Fragmentation Of International Law, Gerhard Hafner
Pros And Cons Ensuing From Fragmentation Of International Law, Gerhard Hafner
Michigan Journal of International Law
The system of international law has become increasingly fragmented, particularly since the end of the Cold War. This paper intends to present the main features of this development and its implications.
Bridging Fragmentation And Unity: International Law As A Universe Of Inter-Connected Islands, Joost Pauwelyn
Bridging Fragmentation And Unity: International Law As A Universe Of Inter-Connected Islands, Joost Pauwelyn
Michigan Journal of International Law
The fragmentation of the international legal system is not new. The consent-based nature of international law inevitably led to the creation of almost as many treaty regimes, composed of different constellations of states, as there are problems to be dealt with. Traditionally, these different regimes operated in virtual isolation from each other. Most importantly, the Bretton Woods institutions (World Bank, IMF, and GATT, now WTO) focused on the world's economic problems, while the UN institutions tackled the world's political problems. Both the IMF and World Bank articles of agreement, for example, explicitly state that political factors cannot be taken into …
Multiple International Judicial Forums: A Reflection Of The Growing Strength Of International Law Or Its Fragmentation?, Pemmaraju Sreenivasa Rao
Multiple International Judicial Forums: A Reflection Of The Growing Strength Of International Law Or Its Fragmentation?, Pemmaraju Sreenivasa Rao
Michigan Journal of International Law
The main thrust of this presentation is to suggest that the creation of multiple international judicial tribunals is a function of the ever-expanding nature of international law and that the creation of such tribunals is a sign of the growing maturity of international law. While it is admitted that these tribunals have to be sensitive to the needs of promoting the unity and integrity of international law, a brief look at the available evidence of their functioning so far has revealed no cause for concern of fragmentation. The author will look specifically at the working of the International Tribunal for …
International Legal Pluralism, William W. Burke-White
International Legal Pluralism, William W. Burke-White
Michigan Journal of International Law
This symposium has sought to examine the fragmentation of the international legal system. Such a task presupposes that international law is, in fact, undergoing some form of fragmentation. A range of recent scholarship has described this so-called fragmentation in various ways and generally considered it a negative development, a threat to the legal system as we know it. This commentary challenges both these assumptions by suggesting that international law is not fragmenting, but rather is being transformed into a pluralist system. Instead of being undermined by fragmentation, the rules, the institutions, and practices of the international legal order can be …
Regime-Collisions: The Vain Search For Legal Unity In The Fragmentation Of Global Law, Andreas Fischer-Lescano, Gunther Teubner
Regime-Collisions: The Vain Search For Legal Unity In The Fragmentation Of Global Law, Andreas Fischer-Lescano, Gunther Teubner
Michigan Journal of International Law
Predictions of future events tend to be a rarity within the social sciences. It is an even more rare occurrence when predicted events come to pass. Niklas Luhmann's prediction on the future of global law is a memorable exception. In 1971, while theorizing on the concept of world society, Luhmann allowed himself the "speculative hypothesis" that global law would experience a radical fragmentation, not along territorial, but along social sectoral lines. The reason for this would be a transformation from normative (politics, morality, law) to cognitive expectations (economy, science, technology); a transformation that would be effected during the transition from …
Commentary To Andreas Fischer- Lescano & Gunther Teubner. The Legitimacy Of International Law And The Role Of The State, Andreas L. Paulus
Commentary To Andreas Fischer- Lescano & Gunther Teubner. The Legitimacy Of International Law And The Role Of The State, Andreas L. Paulus
Michigan Journal of International Law
It will come as a surprise to many readers that Professor Teubner presented their fascinating contribution on regime collision to the Michigan Journal of International Law's Symposium on a panel devoted to "the Role of the State in International Law." Indeed, one could not imagine better devil's advocates than Professor Teubner and Dr. Andreas Fischer-Lescano. They propose a radical break with a concept of international law and order based on the autonomous will of Nation-States. Accordingly, legal regulation does not only, if at all, emanate from Nation-States, but from a panoply of other public and, mostly, private actors. Thus, the …
Fragmentation Of International Law And Establishing An Accountability Regime For International Organizations: The Role Of The Judiciary In Closing The Gap, Karel Wellens
Michigan Journal of International Law
In the mid-nineties, the Editorial Board of the Netherlands Yearbook of International Law decided to select the diversity in secondary rules and the unity of international law as a topic to celebrate the Yearbook's twenty-fifth anniversary. The focus was on sources, responsibility, countermeasures, and dispute settlement, thus reflecting Hart's secondary rules of recognition, change, and adjudication.
Diversity Or Cacophony? The Continuing Debate Over New Sources Of International Law, Kalypso Nicolaïdis, Joyce L. Tong
Diversity Or Cacophony? The Continuing Debate Over New Sources Of International Law, Kalypso Nicolaïdis, Joyce L. Tong
Michigan Journal of International Law
We have reached a point when lawyers' commissions are summoned to discuss the consequences of legal proliferation as an ill threatening the standing of international law through incompatibility or irrelevance. Should this trend towards fragmentation be reversed? Should we devise a legal non-proliferation treaty? Or should we, conversely, welcome the current diversification in the sources of law as reflecting the realities of today's world, as a reflection of the flexibility and adaptability of law when the norm of sovereignty on which it is based is itself undergoing considerable recalibration? In short: how should we deal theoretically as well as practically …