Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-2006
Journal Title
Global Governance
ISSN
1075-2846
Abstract
What happens when there is an imbalance between the operating and normative systems of international law? One obvious outcome is nothing; the imbalance remains, and the norms of the system are not given full effect. For example, human rights provisions abound, but they can be widely ignored in the absence of enforcement mechanisms. In this article, we identify several other possibilities. Our contention is that adaptations occur that compensate for, or at least mitigate, the effects of the operating-normative systems imbalance. Specifically, we explore four kinds of extrasystemic (at least from the perspective of the international legal system) adaptations: (1) actions by nongovernmental organizations and transnational networks, (2) internalization of international law, (3) domestic legal and political processes, and (4) "soft law" mechanisms. Our contention is that the international legal system is partly kept functioning by these actors and mechanisms, even though they technically fall outside the framework of the international legal system.
First Page
161
Last Page
183
Volume Number
12
Issue Number
2
Publisher
Brill Academic Publishers / Martinus Nijhoff Publishers
Recommended Citation
Charlotte Ku & Paul F. Diehl,
Filling in the Gaps: Extrasystemic Mechanisms for Addressing Imbalances between the International Legal Operating System and the Normative System,
12
Global Governance
161
(2006).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/facscholar/431