Alvarez: International Organizations and the Rule of Law

José E. Alvarez (New York Univ. - Law) has posted International Organizations and the Rule of Law. Here's the abstract:

International rule of law fixes should take into full account the special features of the existing international legal system, including, as noted, its reliance on contested, iterative interactions among diverse political and legal forums. Those arguing that the rule of law requires the Security Council to replace its ombudsperson mechanism with a full scale international court to implement its smart sanctions need to consider whether this is the best prescription, as opposed to, for example, insisting that an ombudsperson procedure apply to all Security Council sanctions committees and not just to those sanctions committees that deal with ISIL and Al-Qaida. Sober reflection on whether a full scale judicial process is truly needed is a good idea not only because insistence on the perfect rule of law ideal may be the enemy of the good. It is a good idea because nuance is needed when examining what the national rule of law truly requires and when exporting national rule of law recipes to the international realm.