Democratic Governance and International Law

Prior to the end of the Cold War, the word democracy was rarely used by international lawyers. Few international organisations supported democratic governance, and the criteria for recognition of governments took little account of whether regimes enjoyed a popular mandate. But the events of 1989–1991 profoundly shook old assumptions. Democratic Governance and International Law attempts to assess international law’s new-found interest in fostering transitions to democracy. Is an entitlement to democratic government now emerging in international law? If so, what are its normative foundations? How have global and regional organisations encouraged transitions to democracy, and are their efforts consistent with their constitutional frameworks? How should international law react to elections in which profoundly anti-democratic parties win the vote? In this volume, leading legal scholars grapple with these and other questions to assess the future of international law on this most domestic of questions.

• Brings together in one collection all of the leading writings on this cutting-edge subject in international law • Unique in that it discusses democratization from a legal perspective; virtually no previous material on this • Addresses the major foreign policy challenge of the post-Cold War era

Introduction: The spread of liberal democracy and its implication for international law Gregory H. Fox and Brad R. Roth; Part I. The Normative Foundations of a Right to Political Participation: 1. Legitimacy of the democratic entitlement Thomas M. Franck; 2. The right to political participation in international law Gregory H. Fox; 3. Democracy and the body of international law James Crawford; Part II. Democracy and Inter-State Relations: 4. Democratic legitimacy and the recognition of states and governments Sean D. Murphy; 5. Constitutionalism and democratic government in the inter-American system Steven Schnably; 6. Government networks: the heart of the liberal democratic order Anne-Marie Slaughter; Part III. Democracy and the Use of Force: 7. Sovereignty and human rights in contemporary international law W. Michael Reisman; 8. ‘You, the people’: pro-democratic intervention in international law Michael Byers and Simon Chesterman; 9. Pro-democratic intervention by invitation David Wippman; 10. The illegality of ‘pro-democratic’ invasion pacts Brad R. Roth; 11. International law and the ‘liberal peace’ John Owen; Part IV. Democratisation and Conflicting Imperatives: 12. Intolerant democracies Gregory H. Fox and Georg Nolte; 13. Whose intolerance, which democracy? Martti Koskenniemi; 14. Democratic intolerance: observations on Fox and Nolte Brad R. Roth; 15. A defence of the ‘intolerant democracies’ thesis Gregory H. Fox and Georg Nolte; 16. Democracy and accountability: the criss-crossing paths of two emerging norms Steven R. Ratner; Part V. Critical Approaches: 17. Evaluating democratic progress Brad R. Roth; 18. What kind of democracy does the ‘democratic entitlement’ entail? Jan Knippers Black; 19. International law, democracy and the end of history Susan Marks.

‘In sum, the collection provides the reader with a host of factual information and a wealth of critical and diverse ideas as to if and how the international legal system Is affected by the ‘wave of democratization’ following the end of the Cold War. Democratic Governance and International Law proves to be an indispensable reading for everyone interested in the future developments in a broad variety of areas of international law, influenced by the rise of the principle of democratic legitimacy.’

– Karsten Nowrot, German Yearbook of International Law