This Research Handbook examines the complex relationship between international law and domestic legal systems. An interdisciplinary range of experts analyse the topic from historical, conceptual, critical and doctrinal perspectives, setting the tone for future reflections on the development of the international legal order.
Chapter authors critically discuss the evolution of core understandings of the relationship between international and domestic law, and how this has been affected by specific actors and contexts in a changing global order, particularly imperialism, decolonisation, the post-Cold War era, and more recent trends, such as geopolitical shifts and the rise of populism. They examine concepts such as monism, dualism and pluralism, as well as the legal techniques and doctrines employed to govern the relationship, including approaches to treaty making, constitutional protection and conventionality control. The Research Handbook ultimately champions fresh perspectives on interlinkages between the international and the domestic in a multipolar world.
Cognitive and behavioural studies are making inroads into international law literature and international policy-making; yet their implications for international legal theory remain under- explored. This book is premised on the assumptions that first, human cognition affects the perceptions and behaviour of real-world international law decision-makers; and second, that cognitive processes matter in how international law is formed, interpreted, implemented, and theorized. The book's chapters set out to unearth if and how implicit or explicit assumptions about human cognition are present in various international legal theories; as well as if and how these theoretical approaches can be informed and potentially modified by cognitive studies. Following a succinct discussion on the ‘cognitive turn’, the Introduction briefly addresses somecentral terminological and conceptual issues of cognitive and behavioural studies used in the following chapters. It also exposes some key concepts of cognitive-behavioural studies, sheds light on various interactions between the latter studies and some prominent properties of international legal theories, and provides brief summaries of the book’s chapters.
The latest issue of the Harvard International Law Journal (Vol. 65, no. 2, Spring 2024) is out. Contents include:
