Article contents
State Consent and Disagreement in International Law-Making. Dissolving the Paradox
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 April 2016
Abstract
This article starts with a paradox: international law-making is ridden with reasonable disagreement and yet no state can be bound by international law without its consent and hence without agreement. Breaking away from the pragmatic resignation that prevails among international law scholars on this question, the article proposes an interpretation of the role of state consent that both fits and justifies its central role in the practice of international law-making and, hopefully, strengthens the latter's legitimacy in the future. Its proposed justification actually lies in the circumstances of reasonable disagreement among democratic states and this proposal dissolves the paradox. The article argues that, in international law as it is the case domestically, consent is neither a criterion of validity of law nor a ground for its legitimate authority. It also dispels two myths about state consent: its necessary relationship to legal positivism and state sovereignty. Instead, the article argues, the role of democratic state consent is that of an exception to the legitimate authority of international law and hence to its bindingness in a concrete case. While the legitimacy of international law is not democratic, the democratic nature of states and their democratic accountability to their people matter. This is especially the case in circumstances of widespread and persistent reasonable disagreement as they prevail among democratic states in international law-making. In these circumstances, respecting the sovereign equality of democratic states by requiring their consent is the way to grant an equal voice to their people. Of course, there are limits to the democratic state exception that are inherent to both its democratic dimension (it requires respecting basic political equality) and its consensual dimension (it requires that consent is expressed in a free, fair and informed fashion). The article concludes by showing how the proposed disagreement-attuned account of democratic state consent explains various characteristics of the main international law-making processes, i.e., treaties and custom.
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- Copyright © Foundation of the Leiden Journal of International Law 2016
References
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2 This is the case of the most important sources of international law (Art. 38 1945 Statute of the International Court of Justice), i.e., treaties and customary international law. It also applies, however, to general principles, judicial law, and even international organizations’ law to the extent that they rely indirectly on state consent or, at least, on states’ converging practice. See also Klabbers, J., ‘Law-making and Constitutionalism’, in Klabbers, J., Peters, A., and Ulfstein, G. (eds.), The Constitutionalization of International Law (2009), 81, at 100, 114CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
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5 What is actually meant by the vague notion of ‘being based’ is at the core of this article because accounts vary a lot among international law scholars; some merely refer loosely to consent as a ‘principle’, a ‘meta-norm’, a ‘foundation’ or even an ‘axiom’ of international law (see, e.g., Guzman, supra note 3; Helfer, supra note 3), while others explain what it does and regard it as the basis for either the validity of international law or the international legal obligation and the legitimate authority of international law (see, e.g., J. Crawford, Brownlie's Principles of Public International Law (2012), 20: ‘the general acceptance of states can create rules of general application’; L. Henkin, International Law: Politics and Values (1995), 28: ‘No treaty, old or new, whatever its character, is binding on a state unless it has consented to it’). A similar ambivalence applies to the notion of ‘consent’ that is rarely defined (see infra notes 7 and 28).
6 Because states are the original and sole complete subject of international law and because international law-making is still largely horizontal or decentralized, it is their consent that is at stake in the context of most international law-making to date. I will not, as a result, discuss the issue of the direct participation of other subjects of international law in non-inter-state international law-making in this article. In any case, contra Hollis, D.B., ‘Why Consent Still Matters – Non-State Actors, Treaties and the Changing Sources of International Law’, (2005) 23 Berkeley Journal of International Law 137Google Scholar, I do not think that those subjects’ (esp. democratic) participation in international law-making should be approached through consent. As I will argue in the article, there are distinct democratic grounds for the role of state consent in international law-making: only states can be democratic and enable the accountability of international law to their individual members (at least to date) (see Besson, S., ‘The Authority of International Law – Lifting the State Veil’, (2009) 31 Sydney Law Review 343Google Scholar; Christiano, T., ‘Democratic Legitimacy and International Institutions’ in Besson, S. and Tasioulas, J. (eds.), The Philosophy of International Law (2010), 119Google Scholar; Christiano, T., ‘The Legitimacy of International Institutions’, in Marmor, A. (ed.), The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Law (2012), 380)Google Scholar.
7 Since the early twentieth century, and esp. PCIJ, S.S. Lotus Case (France v. Turkey), Judgment of 7 September 1927, PCIJ Rep Series A No 10, para. 35: ‘The rules of law binding upon states . . . emanate from their own free will.’; ICJ, Barcelona Traction, Light and Power Company, Limited (New Application: 1962) (Belgium v. Spain), Second Phase, Judgment of 5 February 1970, [1970] ICJ Rep. 3, para. 47: ‘Here, as elsewhere, a body of rules could only have developed with the consent of those concerned.’; ICJ, Military and Paramilitary Activities in and Against Nicaragua (Nicaragua v. United States), Merits, Judgment of 27 June 1986, [1986] ICJ Rep. 14, para. 135: ‘In international law there are no rules, other than such rules as may be accepted by the states concerned, by treaty or otherwise.’ For critiques, however, see the individual opinions of judges: e.g., ICJ, Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, Advisory Opinion of 8 July 1996 (Declaration of President Bedjaoui) [1996] ICJ Rep. 268, at 268–74; Accordance with International Law of the Unilateral Declaration of Independence in Respect of Kosovo, Advisory Opinion of 22 July 2010 (Declaration of Judge Simma), [2010] ICJ Rep. 478, at 479.
8 See, e.g., A.J. Simmons, Moral Principles and Political Obligations (1979); J. Raz, The Morality of Freedom (1986), 88 ff; J. Raz, Ethics in the Public Domain (1995), 80–94; Raz, J., ‘The Problem of Authority: Revisiting the Service Conception’, (2006) 90 Minnesota Law Review 1003, at 1028–9Google Scholar, 1037–40 on consent and the legitimate authority of law.
9 See, e.g., T. Christiano, ‘Democracy’, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2015 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2015/entries/democracy/ on democratic legitimacy, reasonable disagreement and consent. On the notion of ‘reasonable disagreement’ and its implications in legal theory more generally, see S. Besson, The Morality of Conflict – Reasonable Disagreement in the Law (2005), at 91–119.
10 See, e.g., R.A. Falk, The Status of International Law in International Society (1970), 14; G. Binder, Treaty Conflict and Political Contradiction – The Dialectic of Duplicity (1988); Klabbers, supra note 2; Ranganathan, S., ‘Between Philosophy and Anxiety? The Early International Law Commission, Treaty Conflict and the Project of International Law’, (2012) 83 BYIL 82Google Scholar.
11 See, e.g., Klabbers, supra note 2, at 100, 114. See also the numerous textbooks that start by discussing, often critically, consent as ground of international legal obligation, but independently from their conclusion in that first section, then invariably end up presenting and defending a consent-based account of international law-making: see, e.g., Brownlie, supra note 5; A. Clapham, Brierly's Law of Nations – An Introduction to the Role of International Law in International Relations (2012).
12 See, e.g., R. Dworkin, Law's Empire (1986); J. Waldron, Law and Disagreement (1999); Besson, supra note 9.
13 See Besson, supra note 9, at 534–7.
14 See L. Murphy, What Makes Law – An Introduction to the Philosophy of Law (2014), 181.
15 See also Falk, supra note 10, at 178.
16 See even Murphy, supra note 14, at 179 who identifies consent and voluntarism in international law. See also Tasioulas, J., ‘Custom, Jus Cogens and Human Rights’, in Bradley, C. (ed.), Custom's Future: International Law in a Changing World (2016)Google Scholar, forthcoming.
17 See especially, H.J. Morgenthau, Die internationale Rechtspflege, ihr Wesen und ihre Grenzen (1929). See, more generally, A. Orford, ‘Scientific Reason and the Discipline of International Law’, (2014) 25: 2 EJIL 369 on the relationship between international law as a discipline and scientific positivism in the history of international law. See, however, d'Aspremont, J. and Kammerhofer, J., ‘Introduction: the future of international legal positivism’, in Kammerhofer, J. and d'Aspremont, J. (eds.), International Legal Positivism in a Post-Modern World (2014), 1, at 5–6Google Scholar.
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19 See, e.g., J. Crawford, Chance, Order, Change: The Course of International Law – General Course on Public International Law (2014).
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22 See, e.g., Klabbers, supra note 2, at 113–14; Klabbers, J., ‘Not Re-Visiting the Concept of Treaty’, in Orakhelashvili, A. and Williams, S. (eds.), 40 Years of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (2010), 29Google Scholar; Murphy, supra note 14, at 179–82.
24 See also Krisch, supra note 4, at 2, 26 ff., 34.
26 See the identification at times between ‘consent’ and ‘consensualism’ in Krisch, supra note 4.
27 See also Klabbers, ‘Not Re-Visiting’, supra note 22, at 31 on the concept of ‘treaty’ and its relationship to changes in the factual circumstances of treaty-making.
28 Even in essays devoted to consent in international law such as e.g., Hollis, supra note 6; Helfer, supra note 3; Guzman, supra note 3; Krisch, supra note 4, at. See, however, Fitzmaurice, ‘Consent’, supra note 4, at 484: ‘The role of the procedures of consent to be bound is to constitute a mechanism by virtue of which a treaty becomes binding on states, or, as it was described, acquires characteristics of a “juridical act”.’ See also Hollis, D.B., ‘Defining Treaties’, in Hollis, D.B. (ed.), The Oxford Guide to Treaties (2012), 11, at 19–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
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36 See, e.g., Tasioulas, supra note 16, on opinio juris qua “consensus” as opposed to “consent”.
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38 Curiously, there is no mention of mutuality in Arts. 2 and 11 VCLT and the term only appears in passing and much later in the VCLT.
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44 The VCLT itself also refers to ‘contracting’ states before they become parties to the treaty (Art. 2(1)(f)). This is common to all regimes of international law.
45 See also Besson, supra note 6, at 346–8.
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49 To that extent, Hart arguably had a potential answer, albeit within the realm of international law, to Dworkin 1986’s ‘semantic sting’ and ‘theoretical disagreement’ critique to the rule of recognition. For a co-ordination-based account of the rule of recognition that combines (i) the existence of a moral duty to co-ordinate with (ii) the minimal requirement of converging practice instead of full agreement and hence a reply to Dworkin, more generally, see Besson, supra note 9, at 161–203. Of course, things are slightly more complicated for the rule of recognition in international law because of the conflation between states qua officials and states qua subjects and hence between the internal and external points of view.
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97 Christiano, supra note 93. See also Klabbers, J., ‘International legal positivism and constitutionalism’, in Kammerhofer, J. andd'Aspremont, J. (eds.), International Legal Positivism in a Post-Modern World (2014), 264CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 285 albeit from a constitutionalist perspective.
98 See also Christiano, supra note 93.
99 See on these standards, Buchanan, A., ‘Reciprocal Legitimation: Reframing the Problem of International Legitimacy’, (2011) 10 Politics, Philosophy & Economics 5Google Scholar, at 15–16; A. Buchanan, Justice, Legitimacy and Self-determination: Moral Foundations for International Law (2004), at 187–9.
100 See Besson, supra note 6, at 349–50 on the different justifications for the authority of domestic and international law.
101 See also Christiano, supra note 93.
103 The justification of the exception of democratic state consent is sovereign equality and not merely equal sovereignty.
104 Exceptions to legitimate authority should not be conflated with exclusions or exemptions from it (as in the case of justified exceptionalism e.g.). On the distinction, see Besson, supra note 6, at 374 ff.
105 See, e.g., Besson, S., ‘Subsidiarity in International Human Rights Law – What is Subsidiary about Human Rights?’, in Barber, N., Ekins, R., and Yowell, P. (eds.), Subsidiarity (2016)Google Scholar, forthcoming.
107 See PCIJ, Lotus Case, supra note 7, para. 35.
108 See, e.g., Crawford, supra note 19, 247; M. Wood, Special Rapporteur, Third Report on identification of customary law, 27 March 2015, UN Doc. A/CN.4/682, para. 94. See also Hollis, ‘Defining’, supra note 28, at 28 on yet another presumption: the ‘being a treaty’ presumption unless a clear intent to the contrary is stated.
111 See also Pellet, supra note 3, at 45 on the evidentiary advantages of consent.
112 See also Besson, supra note 6, at 371–2.
113 See Christiano, supra note 93.
116 This is a common critique to state consent (e.g., C.R. Beitz, Political Theory and International Relations (1999); F.R. Teson, A Philosophy of International Law (1998)), but it is misplaced, however. See, e.g., Human Rights Committee, Mr Rawle Kennedy v. Trinidad and Tobago, Communication No. 845/1998, 28 March 2002, UN Doc. CCPR/C/74/D/845/1998.
117 See Kamminga, M.T., ‘State Succession in Respect of Human Rights Treaties’, (1996) 7 EJIL 46CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
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120 Of course, there is a well-known difficulty in the idea of the freedom of the will: it can only be free (vis-à-vis law) if constrained (by law) in order to be free. See also Koskenniemi, M., ‘The Politics of International Law’, (1990) 1 EJIL 1CrossRefGoogle Scholar on this tension with respect to state consent.
121 See, e.g., Klabbers, ‘Validity’, supra note 42.
122 See Kingsbury, B., ‘The Concept of “Law” in Global Administrative Law’, (2009) 20 EJIL 23CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Murphy, supra note 14, at 164 ff.; Krisch, supra note 4.
123 See Christiano, ‘Democracy’, supra note 9.
124 See Christiano, supra note 93.
126 See Besson, supra note 9, at 161 ff., 459 ff., 503 ff.; Besson, supra note 6, at 352–3, 367 for a full argument; Waldron, J., ‘Authority for Officials’, in Meyer, L.H., Paulson, S.L. and Pogge, T.W. (eds.), Rights, Culture and the Law: Themes from the legal and political philosophy of Joseph Raz (2003), 45CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 49. Contra: Kumm, M., ‘The Cosmopolitan Turn in Constitutionalism: On the Relationship Between Constitutionalism in and Beyond the State’, in Dunoff, J.L. and Trachtman, J.P. (eds.), Ruling the World? International Law, Global Governance, Constitutionalism (2009), 258, at 298CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
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128 See for various proposals, Christiano, supra note 93.
130 See, e.g., Aust, supra note 39, Ch. 8.
131 See Human Rights Committee, General Comment No. 24 on issues relating to reservations made upon ratification or accession to the Covenant or the Optional Protocols thereto, or in relation to declarations under Art. 41 of the Covenant, 11 November 1994, UN Doc. CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.6, para. 18.
132 See, e.g., Goodman, R., ‘Human Rights Treaties, Invalid Reservations and state Consent’, (2002) 96 AJIL 531CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Craven, supra note 43, at 495–7; Redgwell, C.J., ‘Reservations to Treaties and Human Rights Committee General Comment No 24 (52)’, (1997) 46 International & Comparative Law Quarterly 390CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Higgins, supra note 43.
133 See also Klabbers, ‘On Human Rights’, supra note 20, albeit for other reasons.
134 See, e.g., Gardiner, R., ‘The Vienna Convention Rules on Treaty Interpretation’, in Hollis, D.B. (ed.), The Oxford Guide to Treaties (2012), 475–506Google Scholar.
135 Klabbers, ‘On Human Rights’, supra note 20, at 181.
136 See, e.g., the Study Group of the International Law Commission, ‘Fragmentation of International Law: Difficulties arising from the Diversification and Expansion of International Law’, 13 April 2006, UN Doc. A/CN.4/L.682.
138 See Ranganathan, supra note 10, at 91.
139 See also Allott, supra note 1, at 39.
140 See, e.g., Petersen, supra note 21; Klabbers, Treaty Conflicts, supra note 20, at 113 ff.; Crawford, supra note 19, 247; M. Byers, Custom, Power and the Power of Rules – International Relations and Customary International Law (1999), 142–6; Weil, P., ‘Towards Relative Normativity in International Law’, (1983) 77 AJIL 413CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 433–4.
141 This consent-based understanding of persistent objections in the formation of customary international law has been confirmed in Wood, Third Report, supra note 108, at 61–9. Contra: Tasioulas, supra note 16; Guzman, supra note 3, at 775 ff.; Dumberry, P., ‘Incoherent and Ineffective: The Concept of Persistent Objector Revisited’, (2010) 59 International and Comparative Law Quarterly 779Google Scholar; Lau, supra note 3.
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