The Function of Public International Law
This book addresses fundamental aspects of the concept of public international law in both theory and practice. The argument developed by the author is that, underlying the traditional, horizontal, structure of public international law, a vertical structu
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Jan Anne Vos
The Function of Public International Law
123
Jan Anne Vos XYNTHEZYX Nijkerk The Netherlands
ISBN 978-90-6704-860-6 DOI 10.1007/978-90-6704-861-3
ISBN 978-90-6704-861-3
(eBook)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2013930140 Ó J. A. Vos, The Netherlands 2013 Published by T.M.C. ASSER PRESS, The Hague, The Netherlands www.asserpress.nl Produced and distributed for T.M.C. ASSER PRESS by Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science?Business Media (www.springer.com)
Foreword
Since the late 1980’s international legal scholarship has been shaken up by incisive anti-foundational critiques as voiced by inter alia David Kennedy and Martti Koskenniemi. Following the tradition of critical legal scholarship, these critiques demonstrated the indeterminacy of foundational legal concepts in international law and the openness and reversibility of international legal arguments. The insights from critical legal scholarship provoked strong and contradictory responses. Some embraced them as tools for emancipation, that could be used to disclose the political agendas pursued in the name of an objective and neutral international legal order. International law, in this view, should be re-politicized. Others, however, regarded critical scholarship as undermining the international rule of law; as a project that may be well-developed in terms of analysis and deconstruction, but also as a project that threatens international law’s independence from politics as well as its ability to civilize conduct in international affairs. Jan Anne Vos’ The Function of Public International Law is an ambitious attempt to transcend the terms of the debate between critical legal scholars and ‘mainstream’ international lawyers about the relation between law and politics. Vos basically accepts the validity of the critique voiced by critical scholarship. In terms not dissimilar to Koskenniemi’s basic concepts in From Apology to Utopia, Vos argues that international legal argument oscillates between two mutually exclusive positions or frameworks. The first is the framework of obligation, which holds that rules of international law restrict a pre-given freedom of states. The other is the framework of authorization, which holds that international law confers upon states the normative power to act. According to Vos both framewo
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