Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Jeutner: Irresolvable Norm Conflicts in International Law: The Concept of a Legal Dilemma

Valentin Jeutner (Univ. of Oxford - Law; Lund Univ. - Law) has published Irresolvable Norm Conflicts in International Law: The Concept of a Legal Dilemma (Oxford Univ. Press 2017). Here's the abstract:
Conventionally, international legal scholarship concerned with norm conflicts focuses on identifying how international law can or should resolve them. This book adopts a different approach. It focuses on identifying those norm conflicts that law cannot and should not resolve. The book offers an unprecedented, controversial, yet sophisticated, argument in favour of construing such irresolvable conflicts as legal dilemmas. Legal dilemmas exist when a legal actor confronts a conflict between at least two legal norms that cannot be avoided or resolved. Addressing both academics and practitioners, the book aims to identify the character and consequences of legal dilemmas, to distil their legal function within the sphere of international law, and to encourage serious theoretical and practical investigation into the conditions that lead to a legal dilemma.