International Cooperation and law Flashcards
International Cooperation
Occurs when states adopt behavior that aligns with the preferences of other states.
• Cooperation between states
is much more common than conflict. International relations theories have differing approaches to evaluating why states cooperate with one another.
• Realism and the Cooperation Problem
Realist and cooperation
Realist posit
that cooperation is difficult because of the relative gains problem and the prisoner’s dilemma.
• Anarchy leads to a self-help world in which states focus on relative gains, where a gain in power for one state relative to another means it is better able to coerce that other state.
In realism
Because the benefits of cooperation are likely to be unevenly distributed, states are likely to be hesitant to cooperate.
• Realists also argue that cooperation is
difficult because of cheating as exemplified by the prisoner’s dilemma.
The fear that one state, after making a cooperative agreement will renege on its promise,
In realism
will reduce the chances of cooperation and thus make noncooperation the most rational choice.
• Nash Equilibrium
when there is doubt about the possibility of the other prisoner defecting (cheating), the most stable option is to defect (not cooperate).
• Cooperation yields
In realism
the optimum result for both parties.
o Solutions to the cooperation problem
liberal theories provide potential solutions to the cooperation problem.
• Neoliberal institutionalism and cooperation
o Neoliberal institutionalism is the branch
of liberal theory that most directly answers realists concerns.
NeoLiberalism Agrees with realist assumptions regarding
anarchy and self-interest but concludes that these assumptions lead to cooperation because of repeated interactions that facilitate reciprocity.
o International institutions can play
In neoliberalism
an important role in fostering the reciprocity that can sustain cooperation.
o Institutions lengthen the shadow of the future
In liberalism
by providing a framework for interaction that increases the expectation that states will continue to interact well into the future.
o International institutions and treaties provide states
In liberalism
with clear standards of acceptable behavior, and this template of what cooperative behavior looks like enables states to appropriately align their actions with international norms and standards.
o International institutions provide states
In liberalism
with information about the behavior of other states; knowing what other states are doing motivates reciprocity.
• International law is a
body of rules and norms regulating interactions among states and between states and IGOs.
• Functions of international law include
o rules and norms that create order and set expectations,
o mechanisms for dispute settlement,
• Functions of international law also include
o protection of the status quo,
o guarantees of fairness and equity,
o legitimization of the use of force by government.
• History of international law
o Grotian tradition: Hugo Grotius argued that states, like people, are rational, law abiding, and capable of cooperation.
Thus, he concluded that international relations between states is based on the rule of law, specifically the law of nations and the law of nature. He rejected the idea that states can do whatever they wish, a hallmark of sovereignty
• Sources of international law
o Customs
Habits that become engrained as more states follow
the same tradition; they eventually become codified into customary law.
Customary law is limited: it can take
it can become outdated as technology changes; it can lead to ambiguity in interpretation.
o Treaties
Legally binding, explicitly written agreements
between states that lay out rights and obligations.
The creation and enforcement of treaties is governed by the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (1969). According to the convention,
once states meet and work out the details of a treaty, its adoption is typically done either by consensus or by at least a two-thirds majority vote of participating states.
While some treaties simply require a signature to be legally binding,
most also require ratification through the domestic process.
Stages of treaties
States meet and work out the details of the treaty
Adoption: signifies that negotiations over the text have finalized: typically by consensus or by at least a two-thirds majority.
The middle stages of treaties
Signature: states can choose to sign or not sign, regardless of whether they participated or not in the negotiations
Ratification: most treaties require legislative approval
Enter into force: Depends on the specifications of the treaty (minimum number of states that ratify it, period of time, etc.). States that have ratified the treaty are legally bound only when the treaty enters into force.
The last stage of treaties
Acceding: State can also join a treaty even after it has entered into force and even if it is no longer open for signature.
o Vertical enforcement:
legal process by which one actor constrains the actions of another over which it has authority to secure its compliance with the law.
Top-down enforcement
some international institutions, like the International Court of Justice (ICJ), have the power to enforce state compliance.
The ICJ:
(a) settles legal disputes between states in accordance with international law; (b) gives advisory opinions on legal matters
The ICJ, however, has some noteworthy weaknesses:
Both parties must agree to the court’s jurisdiction before a case is taken.
Non-compulsory jurisdiction
ICJ last weakness
Only states can initiate proceedings.
Horizontal enforcement
process by which states work to elicit compliance with international law by other states.
Two mechanisms of horizontal enforcement
power and reciprocity.
Power
In horizontal law
states comply with international law because more powerful states make them
Collective action
In horizontal law
when states join together against the violator of international law
Reciprocity
In horizontal law
the desire to reap the gains of cooperation will incentivize states to comply with the laws (recall prisoner’s dilemma)
o Self-interest
International laws and international institutions are effective only if states comply with the rules and obligations. States are motivated to comply only when it is in their self-interest.
Self-interested states benefit by
participating in making the rules through treaties because that enables them to ensure the rules are in their interest.
o Normative and ethical explanations
States comply for ethical reasons, because it is the right thing to do.
o Normative and ethical explanations
States fear being labeled a pariah and losing face and prestige,
so they comply in order to be seen as legitimate.
• Bodies of international law
o International criminal law
A large number of treaties related to criminal law are currently in force. These laws deal with procedural issues and substantive transnational issues.
o International criminal law
Many of these treaties guarantee mutual legal assistance
which regularizes cooperation between governments on gathering evidence, sharing information, tracking suspects or witnesses, etc.
Several of these treaties also allow for extradition,
In international crime law
which refers to the process of delivering an individual from the territory of one state to another state for prosecution or to serve a sentence.
Extradition treaties often include conditions:
The offense being charged against the individual must be a crime in both states.
o The individual may only be tried for the crime used to justify the extradition
Extradition treaties also include
The offense cannot be “political in nature”.
One great difficulty in extradition treaties
problem of punishment - life sentences, death penalty, etc.
Global criminal activities
such as drug trafficking and terrorism, have also been addressed in international criminal law.
Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs) ● The creation of IGOs
o Liberal and neoliberal institutionalists deem international institutions as arenas in which states interact, work together, and cooperate to solve problems
In IGOs
Multiple interactions lead to greater cooperation. These institutions
coordinate cooperation, moderate state behavior, provide a framework for interaction, establish mechanisms to reduce cheating, and facilitate transparency of state actions
Roles of IGOs
o Intergovernmental organizations (IGOs)
contribute to habits of cooperation; through IGOs, states become socialized to regular interactions. Such regular interactions occur between states in the United Nations (UN), which continuously negotiate and bargain in the forum provided by that organization.
o IGOs facilitate the regularization of processes for information gathering
analysis, and surveillance, settling disputes, and punishment.
o States join IGOs to use them as instruments of foreign policy;
in other words, states create and join IGOs because they secure more benefits from participating in regimes than from not participating.
o IGOs also constrain states. They set agendas and force governments to make decisions, encourage states to develop processes to facilitate IGO participation,
and create norms of behavior with which states must align their policies if they wish to benefit from their membership. States agree to these constraints because the benefits of cooperation outweigh the costs of such constraints.
o The United Nations was founded on three fundamental principles:
- The notion of the sovereign equality of member states:
each state is legally and formally equivalent to every other state.
United Nations foundations
2. Only international problems are within its jurisdiction
Such problems include human rights, global telecommunications, and environmental regulation. In other words, the UN does not interfere with states’ sovereignty.
The United Nations foundation
3. The UN is designed primarily to maintain international peace and security.
Member states must refrain from the threat or use of force and settle disputes through peaceful means.
o The definition of security has broadened from the classical protection of national territory to human security:
providing humanitarian relief for refugees or people who are starving.
United Nations security
▪ Security Council
responsible for ensuring peace and security and deciding on enforcement measures.
United Nations security
Each of the five permanent members (United States
▪ , France, Great Britain, China, Russia)
has a veto
United Nations security
the remaining ten states are elected by the General Assembly
to serve two-year terms and do not have veto power. It is the only body that can authorize the use of force.
United Nations security
o Enforcement and Chapter VII
▪ Chapter VII of the UN Charter enables the Security Council to take
measures to prevent or deter threats to international peace or to counteract threats of aggression. Sanctions have been the major approach used by the UN.
United Nations security
o Article 39
The Security Council shall determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression and shall make recommendations,
or decide what measures shall be taken in accordance with Articles 41 and 42, to maintain or restore international peace and security.
United Nations security
o Article 41
The Security Council may decide what measures not involving the use of armed force are to be employed to give effect to its decisions,
and it may call upon the Members of the United Nations to apply such measures. These may include complete or partial interruption of economic relations and of rail, sea, air, postal, telegraphic, radio, and other means of communication, and the severance of diplomatic relations.
In United Nations security
o Article 42
Should the Security Council consider that measures provided for in Article 41 would be inadequate or have proved to be inadequate, it may take such action by air, sea, or land forces as may be necessary to maintain or restore international peace and security.
Such action may include demonstrations, blockade, and other operations by air, sea, or land forces of Members of the United Nations.
▪ General Assembly:
has 193 member states and permits debate on any topic under its purview. General Assembly resolutions can provide the basis for new international laws. This body, however, can only make recommendations.
▪ Secretariat
It is the primary administrative unit. It gathers information and coordinates and conducts activities. The secretary-general is the chief spokesperson, administrative officer, and public face of the UN system.
▪ Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC):
coordinates economic and social welfare programs and coordinates action of specialized agencies.
▪ Trusteeship Council:
no longer functioning; its task was to supervise decolonization and to phase out trust territories under UN guardianship.
▪ International Court of Justice:
composed of 15 judges, it has noncompulsory jurisdiction on cases brought by states and international organizations
o Key political issues
▪ The UN played a key role in the decolonization of Africa and Asia in the 1950s and 1960s.
The UN Charter endorsed the principle of self-determination for colonial peoples.
▪ In traditional peacekeeping
multilateral institutions such as the UN seek to contain conflicts between two states through third-party military forces that monitor a peace agreement.
▪ Traditional peacekeeping:
Uses third-party military forces drawn from nonpermanent members of the Security Council
Prevents conflicts from escalating
▪ Traditional peacekeeping also
Invited in by disputants
Focuses on separating warring parties (buffer zone), securing borders, patrolling demarcation, maintaining cease-fires
▪ Complex (or multidimensional) peacekeeping activities
respond to civil war and ethno nationalist conflicts in states that may not have requested UN assistance.
▪ Complex peacekeeping includes:
Verifying troop withdrawals
Separating warring factions
Conducting and supervising elections
Implementing human rights guarantees
Complex peace keeping also includes
Supplying humanitarian aid
Helping civil administration maintain law and order (also known as peacebuilding)
▪ UN peacekeepers have tried to maintain law and order in failing societies by aiding in civil administration, policing, and rehabilitating infrastructure
This is referred to as peacebuilding and is a substantial extension of the UN’s responsibilities.
o UN reform: success and stalemate
▪ Most states agree that the Security Council membership should be increased,
but many disagree over how it should be done.
o UN reform: success and stalemate
▪ Problem
permanent members do not represent geographic or regional diversity and do not reflect the power of major economic contributors
o UN reform: success and stalemate
▪ Solution
increase the number of the permanent members on Security Council to include Germany and Japan (major donors) and major regional powers (India, Brazil, Nigeria)
o UN reform: success and stalemate
▪ However, unresolved questions:
How many should be added to the Security Council?
o Need to balance representation with efficiency
Who should be represented?
o For every seat, there are multiple contenders
o India versus Pakistan; Brazil versus Argentina
Should the new members have veto power?
HUMAN RIGHTS
Religious, Philosophical, and Historical Foundations
HUMAN RIGHTS
● All the world’s great religions assert the dignity of individuals and people’s responsibilities to their fellow human beings.
HUMAN RIGHTS
● Four major debates regarding human rights
1. Are these rights universal?
2. Are some rights culturally determined?
HUMAN RIGHTS
Should some rights be prioritized over others?
Who has the responsibility and the right to respond to violations of human rights?
HUMAN RIGHTS
● First-generation rights:
HUMAN RIGHTS
political and civil rights, rights that states cannot take away (free speech, assembly) – negative freedom: “free from”
HUMAN RIGHTS
● Second-generation rights:
HUMAN RIGHTS
economic and social rights, rights that states should provide (health care, jobs, free education) – positive freedom: “free to”
HUMAN RIGHTS
● Third-generation rights:
HUMAN RIGHTS
rights of specific groups (minorities, women, and children)
HUMAN RIGHTS
● Geneva Conventions:
HUMAN RIGHTS
- Protection of the wounded in the armed forces
- Protection of the wounded at sea
HUMAN RIGHTS
Geneva conventions also
HUMAN RIGHTS
- Protection of prisoners of war
- Protection of noncombatants during wartime
HUMAN RIGHTS Emerging International Responsibility
● After World War II, there was a moral demand for international action to protect basic freedoms. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was approved by the UN General Assembly in 1948. Its principles
HUMAN RIGHTS
Its principles were codified in the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Together, they are known as the International Bill of Rights.
● The UN has been responsible for setting human rights standards, while its charter acknowledges the primacy of state sovereignty,
meaning that states cannot be held to international standards.
• State tactics to protect human rights
o What can states do if they believe the human rights of individuals in another state are not being protected?
▪ Use positive incentives or engagement.
▪ Use negative sanctions.
▪ Use force.
● States as abusers of human rights
o Authoritarian or autocratic states are more likely to abuse political and civil rights.
o Less-developed states are unable or unwilling to fulfill social and economic rights.
o All states, even democratic ones, may revoke some political and civil rights when national security is threatened.
o Economic conditions can influence a country’s adherence to human rights standards.
o Culture and history affect a state’s human rights record, influencing which rights are seen as most legitimate and important.
o The UN’s activities have been confined to several areas:
▪ Setting the international human rights standards articulated in many treaties.
▪ Monitoring, reporting, and investigating state behavior. The UN has worked to monitor state behavior, establishing procedures for complaints, compiling reports from observers, and monitoring civil rights.
The UN Human Rights Council established the Universal Periodic Review, through which every state evaluates its human rights record every four years. NGOs are also useful in monitoring activities.
▪ Taking measures to improve state compliance. In the UN this responsibility lies with the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
● Evaluating the efforts of the international community:
enforcement problems
o The international community’s approaches to human rights enforcement are fraught with difficulties.
- A state’s signature on a treaty is no guarantee of its willingness or ability to follow the treaty’s provisions.
- Monitoring state compliance through self-reporting systems presumes a willingness to comply and to be transparent; few IGOs can independently monitor compliance. Monitoring is effective only when undertaken by both domestic NGOs and international actors.
The international community’s approaches to human rights enforcement are fraught with difficulties also include
- Taking direct action by imposing economic embargoes may not achieve the announced objective and may actually be harmful to those very individuals whom the embargoes are trying to help.
- Military action may cause unintended casualties
o The term genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
crime against humanity means any of the following acts when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack:
▪ Murder;
▪ Extermination;
▪ Enslavement;
▪ Deportation or forcible transfer of population;
▪ Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law;
▪ Torture;
▪ Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity;
▪ Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender as defined in paragraph 3, or other grounds that are universally recognized as impermissible under international law, in connection with any act referred to in this paragraph or any crime within the jurisdiction of the Court;
Crimes against humanity also mean
▪ Enforced disappearance of persons;
▪ The crime of apartheid;
▪ Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.
● Punishing the guilty individuals
o The UN has established ad hoc tribunals to try those accused of war crimes committed during specific conflicts.
▪ International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (1993)
▪ International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (1994)
o The International Criminal Court (ICC) is a permanent court established in 2003 to cover the crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and crimes of aggression.
▪ Most of the cases involve crimes committed in Africa.
▪ No individuals are immune from jurisdiction, including heads of states and military leaders
▪ The United States objects to the ICC, arguing that it infringes on U.S. sovereignty. The United States also believes that as a hegemon it has an exceptional international responsibility; thus, its leaders and military personnel should be immune from ICC jurisdiction.
▪ However, the United States does cooperate with the ICC in some specific cases.
The Debate over Humanitarian Intervention and R2P
• Following numerous humanitarian crises in the 1990s, respected international scholars concluded that if a state does not protect its own, then other states
have the responsibility to protect (R2P) by intervening in the state where abuse is occurring, even using military force as a last resort, if authorized by the UN Security Council. This is called humanitarian intervention
• Problems with R2P:
o Intervention is selectively used.
o R2P is used as a justification for intervention by some states acting in their own national interest rather than based on human rights concerns.
o Some states place priority on sovereignty thus opposing R2P.
o Colonial experiences have made Asian and African states skeptical of the humanitarian justification for intervention by Western countries.
o Initial support for humanitarian intervention by a state does not guarantee future support for such missions. Perception of success or failure of previous missions can influence future support.
