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The Coerciveness Of International Law, Anthony D'Amato
The Coerciveness Of International Law, Anthony D'Amato
Faculty Working Papers
This article shows that an important part of the deep structure of international law is its self-referential strategy of employing its own rules to protect its rules. International law tolerates a principled violation of its own rules when necessary to keep other rules from being broken. It extends a legal privilege to states to use coercion against any state that has selfishly attempted to transgress its international obligations. International law thus protects itself through the opportunistic deployment of its own rules.
Consent, Estoppel, And Reasonableness: Three Challenges To Universal International Law, Anthony D'Amato
Consent, Estoppel, And Reasonableness: Three Challenges To Universal International Law, Anthony D'Amato
Faculty Working Papers
Like consent and estoppel, the concept of reasonableness, while failing to provide an adequate explanation of the source of obligation in customary international law, does play an important psychological role in adding to the pressure of international norms upon states. The result is to increase the sense of legality of the rules that are accepted by states as part of "customary international law." This is not to say that each and every alleged rule of universal international law must contain one or more of the elements of consent, estoppel, or reasonableness in order for it to be "valid."