International law is constantly navigating the tension between preserving the status quo and adapting to new exigencies. But when and how do such adaptation processes give way to a more profound transformation, if not a crisis of international law? To address the question of how attacks on the international legal order are changing the value orientation of international law, this book brings together scholars of international law and international relations.
By combining theoretical and methodological analyses with individual case studies, this book offers readers conceptualizations and tools to systematically examine value change and explore the drivers and mechanisms of these processes. These case studies scrutinize value change in the foundational norms of the post-1945 order and in norms representing the rise of the international legal order post-1990. They cover diverse issues: the prohibition of torture, the protection of women's rights, the prohibition of the use of force, the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons, sustainability norms, and accountability for core international crimes. The challenges to each norm, the reactions by norm defenders, and the fate of each norm are also studied. Combined, the analyses show that while a few norms have remained surprisingly robust, several are changing, either in substance or in legal or social validity. The book concludes by integrating the conceptual and empirical insights from this interdisciplinary exchange to assess and explain the ambiguous nature of value change in international law beyond the extremes of mere progress or decline.
1: Heike Krieger and Andrea Liese: Introduction: Value Change in the International Legal Order Part I: Conceptualizing Change and Resilience of (Legal) Norms 2: Antje Wiener: Norm(ative) Change in International Relations: A Conceptual Framework 3: Wayne Sandholtz: Is Winter Coming? - Norm Challenges and Norm Resilience 4: Thomas Kleinlein: Matters of Interpretation - How to Conceptualize and Evaluate Change of Norms and Values in the International Legal Order Part II: Peremptory Norms Shielding Values from Change? 5: Erika de Wet: Entrenching International Values through Positive Law: The (Limited) Effect of Peremptory Norms 6: Max Lesch and Lisbeth Zimmermann: There's Life in the Old Dog Yet: Assessing the Strength of the International Torture Prohibition 7: Dominik Steiger: Ex iniuria ius oritur? - Norm Change and Norm Erosion of the Prohibition of Torture 8: Theresa Reinold: The Prohibition on the Use of Force: Plus Ça Change? - Towards a Theory of Global Normative Change 9: Srinivas Burra: Changing Perceptions on the Right of Self-Defence - Reflections from a Third World Perspective Part III: Reversing Post-cold War Trends of Norm Development? 10: Adam Bower: The International Criminal Court: Between Sovereignty and the Internationalized Fight against Impunity 11: Malcolm Jorgensen: Ideological Values and Norm Contestation in the ICC: The Afghanistan Investigation and American Opposition to Article 12(2)(a) Jurisdiction 12: Alexandros Tokhi: Authoritarian Regimes and Nuclear Nonproliferation Norms 13: Mirko Sossai: Arms Control: Between the NPT and the Nuclear Taboo? 14: Conny Roggeband: International Women's Rights: Progress Under Attack? 15: Lea Barbara Kuhlmann: The Status of International Women's Rights - Are Women's Rights in Danger? 16: Sandra Schwindenhammer: The Future We Want? - Interlinking Global Sustainability Norm Change, Technology Innovation, and Regime Complexity 17: Peter-Tobias Stoll: Precaution and Genetically Modified Organisms: A Healthy Legal Environment? Part IV: Conclusion 18: Heike Krieger and Andrea Liese: Turbulence, Robustness, and Value Change
Heike Krieger is the Chair for International and Public Law at the Freie Universität Berlin. She is Chair of the Berlin Potsdam Research Group (KFG) 'The International Rule of Law - Rise or Decline?', Vice Chair of the German Society for International Law, and member of the Senate of the German Research Foundation. Between 2007 and 2014 she acted as a judge of the Constitutional Court of the State of Berlin. Her research focuses on general international law, international human rights law, and international humanitarian law. She is Editor-in-Chief of the Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law. Andrea Liese is Professor of International Relations at the University of Potsdam and a member of the Berlin Potsdam Research Group (KFG) 'The International Rule of Law - Rise or Decline?' She held research and teaching positions at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, at Freie Universität Berlin, and at the University of Bremen. She was also a Visiting Fellow at the Berlin Social Science Center (WZB) and a John F Kennedy Memorial Fellow at Harvard University. Her research focuses on the authority, expertise, and neutrality of international organizations and on norm collisions in international politics.
