International Law as Inter-Public Law
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Description
In this essay, I seek to take some steps toward the development of a theory of international law that is an alternative—I hope a better alternative—to the standard account of international law simply as jus inter gentes, the law established between governments of states to regulate relations between states as juridical entities. I do not here present anything approximating a full alternative theory, but I try to indicate some features such an alternative theory could have. I argue that international law should be theorized as the law between public entities outside a single state, these public entities being subject to public law and to requirements of publicness. I focus in this paper on the entities whose practice counts in making international law, on the processes whereby these entities make international law, and some implications about the content of international law. My account incorporates most of the substance and institutions of the established jus inter gentes: much international law is indeed made by the agreements or the practices of national governments among themselves. But I offer a different view of the reasons for treating that as international law, a broader view of the entities responsible for making international law, and a more demanding view of what is needed to make international law. My project is concerned with the generation and modification of international law. I do not in this essay propose any different view to the prevailing one on the question of who is or could be regulated by international law: states, corporations, individuals, inter-state organizations, private standard-setting organizations, and so forth.
Source Publication
Moral Universalism and Pluralism
Source Editors/Authors
Henry S. Richardson, Melissa S. Williams
Publication Date
2009
Recommended Citation
Kingsbury, Benedict, "International Law as Inter-Public Law" (2009). Faculty Chapters. 989.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/989
