Description
Book SynopsisThe Impact of International Organizations on International Law addresses how international organizations, particularly those within the UN system, have changed the forms, contents, and effects of international law. Professor Jose Alvarez considers the impact on sovereigns and actions taken by the contemporary Security Council, the UN General Assembly, and UN Specialized Agencies such as the World Health Organization. He considers the diverse functions performed by adjudicators – from judges of the International Criminal Court to arbitrators within the international investment regime. This text raises fundamental questions concerning the future of international law given the challenges international organizations pose to legal positivism, to traditional conceptions of sovereignty, and to the rule of law itself.
Table of ContentsI. Legal Positivism and its Discontents (1) The Mainstream: Legal Positivism (a) Positivist Treaties (b) Positivist Custom (c) Positivist General Principles (2) The Institutional Challenge to Legal Positivism (a) The Reality of Institutionalization (b) The International Judiciary (c) The Return of Domestic Analogies (d) From State Rules to Process (e) From Process to Inter-disciplinarity (3) Caveats II. The UN Charter Over Time: The Contemporary Security Council (1) What is the UN Charter for? (2) The UN Charter as Positivist Instrument (3) The Council and the “Contracting Out” of Force: Iraq (4) The Council as Extradition Tool (5) The Council and Ad Hoc War Criminal Tribunals (6) The Council and the “Right to Democracy” (7) The Council’s “Smart” Sanctions (8) The Council’s Global “Legislation” (9) The Council’s New Tool: The ICC (10) The Council and “Human Security” III. The Contemporary General Assembly (1) The Assembly and the Sources of International Law (2) The Assembly as Charter Interpreter (3) The Assembly as Human Rights Interpreter and Enforcer (4) The Assembly as Peace and Security Institutional Actor IV. A Contemporary Specialized Agency: The World Health Organization (1) The Origins of the WHO (2) The Fall of the Old IHRs (3) The Rise of the Revised (2005) IHRs (4) The WHO’s First Treaty: The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (5) The WHO in Larger Context V. The Main Functions of International Adjudication (1) Introduction (2) The Complex Dispute Settlement Function (3) The Fact-Finding Function (4) The Law-Making Function (5) The Governance Function (6) Conclusions VI. Three Challenges Posed by International Organizations (1) The IO Challenge to Legal Positivism (a) The challenge to the primacy of states and state consent (b) The challenge to the Article 38 source of international obligation (c) The challenge to bindingness (d) Explaining how IO charters “evolve” (2) The IO Challenge to Sovereignty (3) The IO Challenge to the Rule of Law (4) Conclusion
