Introduction

This book is about the changing forms adopted by one particular genus of sovereignty, juridical sovereignty, in the international legal order since 1815. In particular, I argue that the principle of sovereign equality has provided the doctrinal terrain on which different visions of international order and conceptions of sovereignty have clashed. The central argument is the idea that juridical sovereignty has been constituted since 1815 by the interplay of sovereignty as equality (expressed mainly through non-intervention and equal participation doctrines) and sovereignty as inequality (expressed through the special position of the Great Powers and outlaw states in relation to other states in the society). In Chapters 4 to 7, then, I described and assessed the relationship between sovereign equality (and in particular the idea of legislative equality outlined in Chapter 3) and the special position of the Great Powers under international law and in international organisations. I showed how juridical sovereignty accommodates the numerous forms taken by, what I called, legalised hegemony. In these next three chapters, I focus on outlaw states. I want to approach the problem of outlaw or outsider states, indirectly, through the two conceptions of international community developed in Chapter 3 which, in turn, are drawn from two versions of liberal thought. I have called these liberal pluralism and liberal anti-pluralism.