Research in international law
As part of the Five-Year Plan, the International Law Centre proposes to deepen its reflection on the evolution of the state phenomenon, understood in terms of international law. This reflection will be underpinned by two principal investigations:
- Which State? The context of the evolution of the state phenomenon in international relations is attributable to two principal circumstances (which are also linked): the end of bipolarisation and the continuation of globalisation. The end of bipolarisation is particularly evident in new forms of conflict giving rise to new crises of the State, which attack the latter in various ways. Recently we have seen the expansion of the phenomenon of “collapsed states” and the multiplication of conflicts affecting the essential functions of States in several regions. Globalisation is a phenomenon which leads to the intensification of global interdependence in a certain number of fields: economics, finance, migration, communication, culture, etc. The main consequence is the emergence of flows and networks which question the territories and borders and which are destabilising for the State. The conjunction of these two circumstances leads to the re-examination of the idea and the status of the State in international law.
- Which law? The major theories of international law developed in the 20th century (Scelle, Kelsen) rest on a differentiation between international law and domestic law (the former characterised by weak centralisation and weak hierarchy in comparison to the latter) and a relationship between the two legal systems founded on the primacy of the former. This vision relates to the idea that a stronger interdependence will lead to a “global state” and a unified legal system. The evolution of the state phenomenon also leads us to question these theories. Responses to crises of State, such as the internationalisation of constitutions, even if they attest to a hierarchy and a centralisation of international law, some (particularly via a UN-based law training in the field of collective security) also show an interaction between international law and domestic law which challenges these theories. Similarly, globalisation is the source of a “global law” or a “cosmopolitan law” which does not rest on a hierarchy, but instead on an “ordered pluralism”. As a result, analysing the evolution of the state phenomenon is a good indicator of a reflection on the validity of these theories.
