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Conclusion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2024

Umut Özsu
Affiliation:
Carleton University, Ottawa
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Summary

Critics of international law have traditionally focused on the weakness of its enforcement mechanisms. On this view, the main problem with international law is that it lacks the sort of effective power needed for its ‘normative authority’ to mean something in a world of bullets and borders. The problem, in other words, is that international law is not ‘really law’, at least not of a sort that is likely to be backed up with coercive force. Other critics have focused on the question of whether international law is anywhere as ‘international’ as its champions have made it out to be. From this perspective, the real difficulty stems not so much from a lack of real enforcement, nor even from the problem of determining what kind of legal status should be ascribed to ‘rules’ that are often anything but rule-like and ‘norms’ that do not appear to be especially normative. Rather, the difficulty is that international law often falls short of the universality its supporters and detractors both ascribe to it. International law may well be ‘law’, whatever precisely that means, but it cannot justifiably be characterized as ‘international’.

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Chapter
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Completing Humanity
The International Law of Decolonization, 1960–82
, pp. 240 - 245
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Conclusion
  • Umut Özsu, Carleton University, Ottawa
  • Book: Completing Humanity
  • Online publication: 16 January 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108566230.009
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  • Conclusion
  • Umut Özsu, Carleton University, Ottawa
  • Book: Completing Humanity
  • Online publication: 16 January 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108566230.009
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Conclusion
  • Umut Özsu, Carleton University, Ottawa
  • Book: Completing Humanity
  • Online publication: 16 January 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108566230.009
Available formats
×