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Inside Relative Normativity: From Sources to Standard Instruments for the Exercise of International Public Authority

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

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This article suggests a tentative model for the legal conceptualization of the great variety of instruments by which international institutions exercise public authority, brought to light by the thematic studies of this project. If one were to display this variety of instruments on a scale that ranges from binding international law to non-legal instruments, hardly any thinkable step on this scale would remain empty. Situated at the top end of the scale one would find binding instruments such as international treaties, periodic treaty amendments, decisions on individual cases with binding effect or decisions having the potential to become binding by way of domestic recognition. While these instruments clearly have external legal effects, other instruments seem to be purely internal rules of procedure, although they have in fact considerable repercussions for national administrations. Next come various types of soft, i.e. non-binding legal instruments. Some of these instruments operate in the shadow of binding instruments. Others are kept in purely soft form, like product standards or codes of conduct, but also decisions concerning individuals. In the lower part of the scale one would find instruments containing non-binding rules that are foremost aimed at facilitating consultation, or soft private law instruments. At the bottom end one would discover non-legal instruments that are devoid of any deontic elements, but nevertheless have a high legal or political impact on the affected policy area. Examples of this class of instruments include factual assessment reports, indicators, reports on implementation and compliance, and databases.

Type
Cross-cutting Analyses
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 by German Law Journal GbR 

References

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137 Decisions by the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization.Google Scholar

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165 Klabbers, Jan, The Changing Image of International Organizations, in The Legitimacy of International Organizations 221 (Jean-Marc Coicaud & Veijo Heiskanen eds., 2001).Google Scholar

166 von Bernstorff, in this issue; Venzke, in this issue.Google Scholar

167 See the examples in Farahat, in this issue; Feichtner, in this issue; Windsor, in this issue.Google Scholar

168 For the example of PISA, see von Bogdandy & Goldmann (note 15).Google Scholar

169 Some exceptions confirm the rule. See ECJ, Case C-376/98, Germany v. Parliament and Council (Tobacco Advertising), 2000 E.C.R. I-8419; Bundesverfassungsgericht, Case 2 BvF 1/01 (Altenpflegegesetz), 106 BVerfGE 62.Google Scholar

170 Feichtner, in this issue.Google Scholar

171 Windsor, in this issue.Google Scholar

172 See also von Bernstorff, in this issue.Google Scholar

173 Schulze-Fielitz, Helmuth, Art. 20 (Rechtsstaat), in Grundgesetz-Kommentar, margin number 113 (Horst Dreier ed., 2nd ed., 2006).Google Scholar

174 CITES recommendations; rules within the Emission Trading System of the Kyoto Protocol; the HS procedures of the WTO.Google Scholar

175 The Enforcement Branch of the Kyoto Compliance Committee.Google Scholar

176 Feinäugle, in this issue.Google Scholar

177 The World Heritage Committee Operational Guidelines.Google Scholar

178 Láncos, in this issue; Zacharias, in this issue; Farahat, in this issue; Fuchs, in this issue; von Bernstorff, in this issue.Google Scholar

179 Láncos, in this issue; Zacharias, in this issue.Google Scholar

180 Farahat, in this issue; Less, in this issue.Google Scholar

181 Bast (note 95), at 329.Google Scholar

182 Supra, notes 1 and 7.Google Scholar

183 In this sense, see Baxter (note 42), at 549; Neuhold, Hanspeter, The Inadequacy of Law-Making by International Treaties: “Soft Law” as an Alternative?, in Developments of International Law in Treaty Making 39, 48 et seq. (Rüdiger Wolfrum & Volker Röben eds., 2005); Alford, Roger, Federal Courts, International Tribunals, and the Continuum of Deference, 43 Virginia Journal of International Law 675 (2003). On the elusiveness of referrals to the intention to be bound, see Klabbers (note 57), at 65 et seq. Google Scholar

184 For an impressive deconstruction of intent see Klabbers (note 57), at 65 et seq. Google Scholar

185 d'Aspremont (note 43), at 10 (accepting reference to these instruments as “soft law”).Google Scholar

186 Friedrich, in this issue.Google Scholar

187 Klabbers (note 57), at 164.Google Scholar