Human rights norms almost authoritative- need operationalisation
Three guiding principles:
o States are free under international law, to which they consent
o States are equal
o States are sovereign
Sources:
o International conventions
o International custom
Realism vs. Liberalism
Respective/relative power
o General principles of law
o Decisions and teachings (ICJ)
Equality
o WTO as regulatory body/case- US more relative power than Botswana- not all
states treated equally under law
o If states can override them do they have equal legal power?
Signing into law- inhibits sovereignty- EU?
Sovereignty
o UN Charter affirms the principle of sovereign equality
o “Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorise the United Nations
to intervene in matters which are essentially the jurisdiction of any state”
o The challenge of the US- and its involvement or otherwise
Only state that can opt out sometimes
Therefore, arguably the only state truly sovereign
The Challenge of Compliance
o Enforcement and Oversight: “good faith”
Is monitoring and reporting sufficient?
Contrary reports- UN
o Compliance: inconsistency and uncertainty
How can we achieve universality?
Core point as external actor- information and predicting behaviour of
other states
Knowing state is conducting torture, for example, allows states
to interject
o Duplication and Complexity
Is one central authority necessary?
Tendency towards authoritarianism- impedes sovereignty
UNHCR- voluntary funding
UN: Security
o Collective security organisation at its heart- Security Council
o Some common norms but disagreement as to how these norms should be
put into practise
o Peacekeeping- cannot fire back, defensive, interjecting on behalf of civilians
o Peace-making- more proactive
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