Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-xm8r8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-29T22:11:13.642Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

PART II - The outlines of the cosmopolitan project – the actors, sources, and courts of universal law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 May 2011

Jochen von Bernstorff
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht, Germany
Get access

Summary

Kelsen had put forth his postulated “purity of method” above all in opposition to the dogma of sovereignty, the voluntaristic foundation of international law, and the dualism of international law and national law. As demonstrated in Part I of this book, his own “objective” construction of international law arose for the most part out of the destruction of traditional doctrinal distinctions, out of the assertion of what had previously been widely seen as impossible. Thus, duality becomes unity, state sovereignty becomes a sovereign order of international law, or a legal system between states becomes a supraordinated law that can directly grant rights to, and impose obligations on, not only states, but also individuals. Behind this revision of traditional doctrine stood, as I will continue to show in Part II, Kelsen's own cosmopolitan project. The outlines of that project become especially clear in his writings during the Second World War that were focused on questions of a new world order. This project included new actors, that is, international organizations and individuals, who take their place next to the state as the classic subject of international law. On the whole, Kelsen sought a thoroughgoing juridification of international relations. Having witnessed two world wars, he advocated a global monopoly of force that was legally controlled and enforced by an effective system of collective security.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Public International Law Theory of Hans Kelsen
Believing in Universal Law
, pp. 119 - 122
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×