Softness in international law: A self-serving quest for new legal materials

European Journal of International Law

Volumn 19, Issue 5, 2008, Pages 1075-1093

  D'Aspremont, Jean ^a  

^a LEIDEN UNIVERSITY   (Netherlands)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 58149460573     PISSN: 09385428     EISSN: 14643596     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/ejil/chn057     Document Type: Article

References (200)

1. Abott and Snidal, 'Hard and Soft Law in International Governance', 54 International Organization (2000) 421.
2. Dupuy, 'Soft Law and the International Law of the Environment', 12 Mich J Int'l L (1990-1991) 420, especially at 424.
3. Klabbers, 'Institutional Ambivalence by Design: Soft Organizations in International Law', 70 Nordic J Int'l L (2001) 403.
4. Yoshida, 'Soft Enforcement of Treaties: The Montreal Protocol's Noncompliance Procedure and the Functions of Internal International Institutions', 95 Colorado J Environmental L & Policy (1999) 95
5. Boyle, 'Some Reflections on the Relationship of Treaties and Soft Law', 48 ICLQ (1999)b 901, especially at 909.
6. Kennedy, 'The Sources of International Law', 2 American U J Int'l L and Policy (1987) 1, especially at 20-21.
7. On the history of some strands of positivism see A. Truyol Y Serra, Doctrines sur le fondement du droit des gens (ed. R. Kolb, 2007). For a discussion about a leading figure of positivism see Gaja, 'Positivism and Dualism in Dionisio Anzilotti', 3 EJIL (1992) 123.
8. See also Nolte, 'From Dioniso Anzilotti to Roberto Ago: The Classical International Law of State Responsibility and the Traditional Primacy ofa Bilateral Conception of Inter-state Relations', 13 EJIL (2002) 1083.
9. The strongest criticism has been levelled by Weil, 'Towards Relative Normativity in International Law?', 77 AJIL (1983) 413.
10. The expression is from G. Schwarzenberger, The Frontiers of International Law (1962).
11. See the functional positivism of Ago, 'Positive Law and International Law', 51 AJIL (1957) 691. Such a functionalist approach of positivism should not be conflated with the realist objection to positivism which was also denoted as 'functional':
12. see Morgenthau, 'Positivism, Functionalism and International Law', 34 AJIL (1940) 260.
13. For the first fully-fledged theories of the legal act see D. Anzilotti, Cours de droit international, premier volume: Introduction - theories généales (trans. Gidel, 192 9), especially at 333-456.
14. See also G. Scelle, Précis de droit des gens. Principes et Sytématique (1934-1936), 2 vols
15. Basdevant, 'Règles générales du droit de la Paix' 58 Collected Courses (1936 IV) 475, especially at 638-655.
16. On the scarcity of theories of the legal act in Anglo-Saxon legal scholarship see Cot, 'Tableau de la pensée juridique américaine', 110 Revue générale de droit international public (2006) 537
17. Jacqué, 'Acte et norme en droit international public', 227 Collected Courses (1992-VI) 367.
18. One of the most illuminating theories of the international legal act has been offered by Reuter, 'Principes de droit international public', 103 Collected Courses (1961-11) 425.
19. For an illustration see Jacqué, Elements pour une théorie de l'acte juridique en Droit international public (1972), at 37-42.
20. On the analogies with domestic law in international law see generally H. Lauterpacht, Private Law Sources and Analogies in International Law (1927).
21. See in general, Aubry and Rau, Cours de droit civil français (5th edn, 1897), iv, at 104.
22. For an insightful picture of the French international legal scholarship see generally Jouannet, 'Regards sur un siècle de doctrine française de droit international' [2001] Annuaire français de droit international 1.
23. Art. 30 of the ILC Articles on State responsibility (2001), Official Records of the General Assembly, 56th session, Supp. No. 10 (A/56/ 10), chap. IV.E.1.
24. See Arts 28 and 31 of ibid.
25. North Sea Continental Shelf case [1969] ICJ Rep 3, at 44.
26. Military and Paramilitary Activities in and against Nicaragua (Nicaragua v. United States of America) (Merits) [1986] ICJ Rep 14, at para. I86. See on this point Kammerhofer, 'The Uncertainty in the Formal Sources of International Law: Customary International Law and Some of Its Problems', 15 EJIL (2004) 523, at 531-532.
27. d'Aspremont, 'Regulating Statehood: The Kosovo Status Settlement', 20 LJIL (2007) 649
28. see also from the same author on this topic 'La creation internationale d'Etats democratiques', 109 Revue Générale de Droit International Public (2005) 889 and L'Etat non démocratique en droit international. Etude critique du droit international positif et de la pratique contemporaine (2008).
29. Jacqué, supra note 11, at 374 and 381.
30. Jacqué, supra note 13, at 187-188
31. M. Virally, La pensée juridique (1960), at 93.
32. Anziloti, supra note 10, at 333-334
33. Reuter, supra note 12, at 531
34. F. von Liszt, Le Droit international: Exposé systématique (trans. Gidel, 1928), at 173-174.
35. Virally, supra note 20, at 95: 'L'acte juridique... permet surtout aux titulaires de droits-pouvoirs de poser des normes vraiment nouvelles par leur contenu au lieu de se limiter à l'application pure et simple des dispositions figurant dans les règles existantes. Grâce a cet instrument, l'ordre juridique dispose du moyen d'engendrer lui-même et de déterminer les conditions de sa création par une activité volontaire.'
36. See infra, at B.2.
37. See the insightful lessons from Kennedy's criticisms on the contractual character of public order in positivist theories: Kennedy, 'International Law and the Nineteenth Century, History of an Illusion', 65 Nordic J Int'l L (1996) 385, especially at 398
38. and Kennedy, 'A New World Order: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow', 4 Transnational Legal and Contemporary Problems (1994) 329, especially at 370.
39. As regards the validity of conventional legal acts see the VCLT 1969 and VCLT 1986. As regards the validity of unilateral acts see the unsuccessful work of the International Law Commission, Proposal for Eleven Draft Guiding Principles on Unilateral Acts of States - Ninth Report of the Special Rapporteur (Mr Víctor Rodríguez Cedeño), 58th session, UN Doc A/CN.4/569.
40. See the comments of d'Aspremont,'Les travaux de la Commission du droit international relatifs aux actes unilatéraux des Etats', 109 Revue générale de droit international public (2005) 163.
41. See more generally Verhoeven, 'Les nullités du droit des gens', in P. Weil (ed.), Droit International (1981), i at 1.
42. See Anzilotti, supra note 10, at 333-334: 'un fait n'est pas juridique par lui-même, mais bien à raison de la relation dans laquelle il se trouve avec cet ordre donné',
43. Reuter, supra note 12, at 531.
44. Combacau and Alland, 'Primary and Secondary Rules in the Law of State Responsibility: Categorizing International Obligations', 16 Netherlands Yrbk Int'l L (1985) 81.
45. For an early systematization of the distinction between legal acts and legal facts see Anzilotti, supra note 10. See also Morelli, 'Cours général de droit international public', 89 Collected Courses (1957-I) 589.
46. Jacque, supra note 11, at 372.
47. Virally, supra note 20, at 93
48. In this sense see Anzilotti, supra note 10, at 333 and 339.
49. See d'Aspremont, supra note 24, at 179-180.
50. See Art. 53 of the 1969 VCLT.
51. Jacqué, supra note 13, at 188.
52. Commentaries, ILC Annual Report (2001), Ch IV in Official Records of the General Assembly, 56th Session, Supp. No. 10 (A/56/ 10), at 68.
53. Such a distinction was already made by Kelsen, 'Theorie du droit international public' 84 Collected Courses (1953-III) 136. This distinction was also made by special rapporteur Brierly of the ILC on the Law of Treaties: '[a] certain linguistic difficulty must... inevitably pervade the framing of rules for the conclusion of treaties. This is especially the case when the term "treaty" is used primarily to connote the instrument or document embodying a binding agreement rather than the agreement itself... It is innocuous provided that it does not obscure the real nature of treaty, which is a legal act or transaction, rather than a document': A/CN.4/32, [1950] Yrbk Int'l Law Commission, ii, para. 30.
54. See also the report of Fitzmaurice, A/CNA/101, [1956] Yrbk Int'l Law Commission, ii, Art. 14 and commentary No. 24. Some authors have preferred the words actum and actus to draw such a distinction between the content of the act and the instrument to which it is consigned:
55. see Dehaussy, cited by Jacqué, supra note 13, at 52.
56. See Dupuy, 'Declaratory Law and Programmatory Law: From Revolutionary Custom to "Soft Law"', in R. Akkerman et al. (eds), Declarations of Principles. A Quest for Universal Peace (1977), at 252.
57. See also Abi-Saab, 'Eloge du "droit assourdi" - Quelques réflexions sur le rôle de la soft law en droit international contemporain', in Nouveaux itinéaires en droit: Hommage à François Rigaux (1993), at 60.
58. Abi-Saab, 'Cours général de droit international public', 207 Collected Courses (1987-II) 206.
59. McNair does not hint at the expression soft law in his seminal work on the Law of Treaties. Jennings, as a former student of McNair, explains that McNair was using the distinction Soft Law and Hard Law as synonymous with the distinction between lex lata and lex ferenda
60. see Jennings,'An International Lawyer Takes Stock', 39 ICLQ (1990) 513, at 516.
61. See also Klabbers,'The Redundancy of Soft Law', 65 Nordic J Int'l L (1996) 173, especially at n. 32.
62. See also Abi-Saab, 'Cours général de droit international public', supra note 34, at 206.
63. Aust, 'The Theory and Practice of Informal International Instruments', 35 ICLQ (1986) 787
64. Lipson, 'Why are Some International Agreements Informal?', 45 Int'l Org (1991) 495.
65. See also Guzman, 'The Design of International Agreements', 16 EJIL (2005) 579
66. Boyle, 'Some Reflections on the Relationship of Treaties and Soft Law', 48 ICLQ (1999) 901.
67. Widdows, 'What is an Agreement in International Law?', 50 BYbIL (1979) 117.
68. Hillgenberg, 'A Fresh Look at Soft Law', 10 EJIL (1999) 499, especially at 500.
69. On this question see Verhoeven, 'Non-intervention: Affaires intérieures ou "vie privée'?", in Mélanges en hommages à Michel Virally (1991), at 493
70. Kolb, 'Du domaine réservé - Réflexion sur la théorie de la compétence nationale', 110 RGDIP (2006) 597, especially at 609-610
71. Sloan, 'General Assembly Resolutions Revisited (Forty Years Later)', 58 BYIL (1987) 124.
72. See Aust, supra note 36, at 787-812
73. Dupuy, supra note 34, at 255.
74. See Schachter, 'The Twilight Existence of Non-binding International Agreements', 71 AJIL (1977) 296.
75. This is, for instance, the intention of Art. 19 of the ILC Articles on Diplomatic Protection on the 'recommended practice' by states, Official Records of the General Assembly, 61st Session, Supp. No. 10 (A/61/10).
76. A. Boyle and C. Chinkin, The Making of International Law (2007), at 211-229
77. V. Lowe, International Law (2007), at 96-97
78. Guzman, 'The Design of International Agreements', 16 EJIL (2005) 579
79. Pellet has hinted at the idea of 'dégradé normatif: Pellet, 'Le "bon droit" et l'ivraie - plaidoyer pour l'ivraie', in Mélanges offerts à Charles Chaumont, Le droit des peuples à disposer d'eux-mêmes. Méthodes d'analyse du droit international (1984), at 465-493, especially at 488.
80. See also Abi-Saab, 'Eloge du "droit assourdi", supra note 34, at 62-63
81. Baxter, 'International Law in "Her Infinite Variety"', 29 ICLQ (2980) 549
82. Ida, 'Formation des normes internationales dans un monde en mutation. Critique de la notion de Soft Law', in Mélanges en hommage à Michel Virally (1991), at 336
83. Virally, 'La distinction entre textes internationaux de portée juridique et textes internationaux dépourvus de portée juridique, Rapport provisoire à l'Institut de droit international', 60-I Annuaire de L'Institut de Droit International (1983), at 244
84. Elias and Lim, 'General Principles of Law, "Soft" Law and the Identification of International Law', 28 Netherlands Yrbk Int'lL (1997) 45.
85. Klabbers, supra note 35, at 180
86. Weil, supra note 7, at 413-442
87. Virally, supra note 42, at 246.
88. On the simplifying capacity of law and for a non-positivist account of law see in general Koskenniemi, 'International Law in a Post-realist Era', 16 Austrian Yrbk Int'l L (1995) 1.
89. Virally, supra note 43, at 246.
90. See also d'Aspremont, 'Les dispositions non-normatives des actes juridiques conventionnels', 36 Belgian Rev Int'l L (2003) 492, especially at 518-519.
91. J. Klabbers, The Concept of Treaty in International Law (1996), at 158-159.
92. Klabbers, supra note 35, at 179 and 'The Undesirability of Soft Law', 67 Nordic J Int'l L (1998) 381, especially at 382.
93. See Virally, supra note 42, at 246
94. Abi-Saab, 'Cours général', supra note 34, at 209.
95. Chinkin, 'The Challenge to Soft Law, Development and Change in International Law', 38 ICLQ (1989) 850, at 865.
96. Boyle and Chinkin, supra note 42, at 211-229.
97. Cf supra note 32.
98. Widdows, supra note 37, at 124.
99. Dupuy, supra note 34, at 252.
100. Boyle and Chinkin, supra note 42, at 220.
101. Baxter is probably the first author to have interpreted soft law in this sense: See his 'International Law in "Her Infinite Variety"', 29 ICLQ(1980) 549
102. Hillgenberg, supra note 38, at 500
103. Gruchalla-Wesierski, 'A Framework for Understanding "Soft Law"', 30 McGill LJ (1984) 37, at 39
104. Boyle, 'Some Reflections on the Relationship of Treaties and Soft Law', 48 ICLQ (1999) 901
105. Abi-Saab, 'Eloge du "droit assourdi"', supra note 34, at 61.
106. More recently, see Boyle and Chinkin, supra note 42, at 220.
107. See, however, Lowe, supra note 42, at 96 (who rejects the use of soft law to refer to legal acts with a soft content).
108. Separate Opinion of Judge Lauterpacht to the Decision of 6 July 1957 in the Certain Norwegian Loans case [1957]ICJ Rep. at 48: '[a]n instrument in which a party is entitled to determine the existence of its obligation is not a valid and enforceable legal instrument of which a court of law can take cognizance. It is not a legal instrument. It is a declaration of a political principle and purpose.' See also his dissenting opinion to the Decision of 21 Mar. 1959 in the Interhandel case [1959] ICJ Rep. 6, at 116.
109. Compare Jacqué, supra note 13, at 69-70 and Jacqué, supra note 11, at 383.
110. See Art. 2 of the 1969 VCLT, 1155 UNTS 331.
111. See pt. V, sect. I of ibid.
112. See the aforementioned Opinion of Judge Lauterpacht to the Norwegian Loans Decision, supra note 55, at 48.
113. Explanatory Report of the Convention, at para. 12, available at: http://conventions.coe.int. See also the declaration of 11 May 1995 by Germany and that of 23 March 1998 by Slovenia, available at: http://conventions.coe.int. On the legal problems generated by this convention instruments see generally d'Aspremont, 'Les réserves aux traités. Observations à la lumière de la Convention-cadre du Conseil de l'Europe pour la protection des minorités nationales', in Les Minorités, Recueil des travaux de l'Association Henri Capitant, vol. LII/2002, at 487-514.
114. [1969] ICJ Rep. 1, at para. 72.
115. Ibid., at para 72. For a analysis of this aspect of the case see d'Aspremont, supra note 44, at 518.
116. See also Boyle and Chinkin, supra note 42, at 221.
117. Fitzmaurice's report [1956]II Yrbk Int'l Law Commission, at 120
118. Widdows, supra note 37, at 132.
119. Wengler, 'Les Conventions "non juridiques" comme nouvelle voie à côté des conventions en droit', in Mélanges en hommage à François Rigaux (1993), at 647.
120. V.D. Degan, Sources of International Law (1997), at 501.
121. 'The Solidarity of the American States and the high aims which are sought through it require the political organization of those States on the basis of the effective exercise of representative democracy.'
122. [1986] ICJ Rep. 14, at paras 259-261.
123. For an analysis of this aspect of the case see d'Aspremont, supra note 44, at 518.
124. [1996] ICJ Rep. 803, at paras 28 and 31.
125. Verhoeven, 'La notion d'applicabilité directe du droit international', 15 Belgian Rev Int'l L (1980) 248
126. Virally, supra note 42, at 250.
127. See the illustrations provided by Kiss, 'Les traités-cadres:uNe technique juridique caractéristique du droit international de l'environnement', 39 Annuaire français de droit international (1993) 792.
128. See also Dupuy, 'Declaratory Law and Programmatory Law: From Revolutionary Custom to "Soft Law "', supra note 34, at 254.
129. Art. III of the 1968 Treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, 728 UNTS 169.
130. For an example of this sort of provisions see, for instance, Art. III.4 of ibid.
131. See also the advisory opinion of the ICJ on the International Status of South-West Africa, 11 July 1950 [1950] ICJ Rep. 128, at 140.
132. Arts 4 and 12 of the 1995 Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, ETS No. 157.
133. Art. 5 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1577 UNTS 3
134. Art. 10 on the 1992 European Charter for Minority and Regional Languages, ETS No. 48; Arts 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 14 of the Convention on Biological Diversity, 1001 UNTS 4; Art. XXXVII of GATT 1995, 1867 UNTS 187.
135. Convention on Biological Diversity, supra note 74, Art. 5.
136. Ibid., Art. 16.3.
137. Ibid., Arts 6 and 20.
138. Art. 6.3 of the 1994 Energy Charter Treaty, 34 ILM (1999) 381.
139. Weil, supra note 7, at 414-415.
140. Abi-Saab, 'Cours general de droit international public', supra note 34, at 209-213
141. d'Aspremont, supra note 44, at 520
142. Gruchalla-Wesierski, supra note 54, at 39-40.
143. On this tendency see Bederman, 'What is Wrong with International Law Scholarship', 1 Chicago J Int'l L (2000) 81.
144. See, e.g., Fitzmaurice, 'The General Principles of International Law Considered from the Standpoint of the Rule of Law' 92 Collected Courses (1957-II) 1, at 38
145. Abi-Saab, 'Cours général des droit international public', supra note 34, at 45.
146. Hobbes has classically been interpreted as having offered the best depiction of the international state of nature. See the radical realist interpretation of Hobbes by H. Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations (4th edn, 1967), at 113. Cf. the more subtle interpretation offered by the Rationalist School: See H. Bull, The Anarchical Society (1977), at 4-5.
147. On the appeal held by Grotius for Hedley Bull and the discrepancies between the former and the latter see Kingsbury, 'A Grotian Tradition of Theory and Practice?: Grotius, Law and Moral Skepticism in the Thought of Hedley Bull', 17 Quinnipiac LR (1997-1998) 3.
148. For a neo-Hobbesian account of international law see more recently d'Aspremont, 'International Law in Asia: The Limits to the Constitutionalist and Liberal Doctrines', 13 Asian Yrbk Int'l L (2008) 89 or d'Aspremont, 'The Foundations of the International Legal Order', 12 Finnish Yearbook of International Law (2007).
149. On the various dimensions of this enthusiasm for the international see Kennedy, 'A New World Order: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow', supra note 23, at 336
150. see also S. Marks, The Riddle of All Constitutions (2003), at 146.
151. This was insightfully highlighted by Klabbers, supra note 46, at 383.
152. See Jessup's concept of Transnational Law (1956)
153. McDougal, 'International Law, Power and Policy: A Contemporary Conception', 82 Collected Courses (1953-I) 137.
154. For more recent developments see Zaring 'Informal Procedure, Hard and Soft, in International Administration', 5 Chicago J Int'l L (2005) 547
155. Kingsbury, 'Sovereignty and Equality', 9 EJIL (1998) 611
156. and Slaughter, 'Global Government Networks, Global Information Agencies, and Disaggregated Democracy', 24 Michigan J Int'l L (2002-2003) 1041, 'Accountability of Government Networks', 8 Ind. J Global Legal Stud (2000-2001) 347 and 'The Real New World Order', 76 Foreign Aff (1997) 183.
157. Klabbers, supra note 45, at 121.
158. See Boyle and Chinkin, supra note 42, at 229 who rightly highlight that non-binding instruments do not necessarily have less weight than unratified or poorly ratified treaties. As is argued here, this does not underpin in any manner the need for the concept of 'soft law'.
159. For an illustration of one of the most recent journals created in this field see Human Rights and International Legal Discourse, available at: www.hrild.org.
160. d'Aspremont, 'La doctrine du droit internationale face à la tentation de la "juridicisation" sans limites', 118 Revue générale de droit international public (2008) (forthcoming).
161. The variety and richness of scholarly opinions is often seen as one positive consequence of the unforeseen development of legal scholarship. See Stephens' remarks to the panel on 'Scholars in the Construction and Critique of International Law' held on the occasion of the 2000 ASIL meeting, 94 ASIL Proceedings (2000) 317, at 318.
162. Jennings, 'International Reform and Progressive Development', in G. Hafner et al. (eds), Liber Amicorum Professor Seidl-Hohenveldern - in honor of his 80th Birthday (1988), at 333, 333-334
163. See contra Kennedy, 'A New World Order: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow', supra note 23, at 370.
164. For a recent example see Spiermann, 'Twentieth Century Internationalism in Law', 18 EJIL (2007) 785.
165. See Cass, 'Navigating the Newstream: Recent Critical Scholarship in International Law', 65 Nordic J Int'l L (1996) 341.
166. See also Jouannet, ' Le même et l'autre', in E. Jouannet, H. Ruiz Fabri, and J.-M. Sorel, Regards d'une génération sur le Droit International (2008), at 210.
167. See generally Piper, 'On Changing or Rejecting the International Legal Order', 12 Int'l Lawyer (1978) 293.
168. Such a claim has very often been directed at the reform of the UN charter order. On this specific question see more recently Chesterman, 'Reforming the United Nations: Legitimacy, Effectiveness and Power After Iraq', 10 Singapore Yrbk Int'l L (2006) 59.
169. Kennedy, 'A New World Order: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow', supra note 23, especially at 338 and 343.
170. See also Gattini, 'Les phénomènes de mode en droit international', in Le droit international et le temps, Proceedings of the Société française pour le droit international (2001), at 49.
171. On this point see Bianchi, 'Une generation de "communautaristes"', in Jouannet et al., supra note 95, at 97
172. for a criticisms of over-specialization in international legal scholarship see Dunoff, 'International Legal Scholarship at the Millenium', 1 Chicago J Int'l L (2000) 85.
173. See, for instance, the craze for WTO Law in the second part of the 1990s.
174. Slaughter, 'International Law and International Relations Theory: A Dual Agenda', 87 AJIL (1993) 205
175. Arend, 'Do Legal Rules Matter: International Law and International Politics', 38 Virginia J Int'l L (1998) 107.
176. Dunoff and Trachtman, 'The Law and Economics of Humanitarian Law Violations in Internal Conflicts', 93 AJIL (1999) 394
177. Stephan, 'Barbarians Inside the Gate: Public Choice Theory and International Economic Law', 10 Am U J Int'l L & Politics (1995) 745.
178. Bederman, supra note 81, at 79.
179. On the new approaches of law see the special issue of 65 Nordic J Int'l L (1996), at 341-595.
180. See also the interesting account by Marks, supra note 84, at ch. 6.
181. For a criticism of the 'post-modern' character of these developments see Jouannet, supra note 95, at 221-222.
182. See Wengler, supra note 63, at 639: '[d]' un point de vue psychologique, il est cependant... compréhensible que les juristes cherchent sans cesse a "rejuridifier" de quelque manière des conventions qui, dans l'intention des parties, n'auraient pourtant pas été conclues en droit'.
183. On the systematic character of International Law see Combacau, 'Le droit international: Bric-à-brac ou système?' [1986] Archives de philosophie du droit at 85.
184. On the traditional role of the scholar see the illuminating account given by Virally, supra note 20, at p. xxii.
185. See also the enlightening and famous interpretation of the role of scholars by Reuter, supra note 12, at 459:
186. '[I]e droit n'est pas seulement un produit de la vie sociale, il est également le fruit d'un effort de pensée, s'efforçant d'agencer les données ainsi recueillies dans un ensemble cohérent et aussi logique que possible. C'est l'aspect systématique du droit international, il est à la fois plus important et plus délicat que celui des droits nationaux. Il est plus important parce que les sociétés nationales, du fait qu'elles sont profondément centralisées par l'autorité étatique, engendrent un droit déjá systématisé par ses conditions d' élaboration. Au contraire, la "décentralisation du pouvoir politique" qui règne dans la société internationale rejette sur le juriste un fardeau plus lourd. Il est plus délicat parce que le désordre de la société internationale n'est pas tant désordre de la pensée que désordre du pouvoir; certes le juriste peut se laisser aller à la systématisation, mais s'agit-il de systématiser seulement ses pensées ou de systématiser aussi la réalité? Certes, de par sa nature même, le droit est avide d'ordre mais à quoi servirait-il, par excès de rigueur dans la pensée, de poursuivre une systématisation en dehors du cadre des solutions admises. '
187. Jennings, supra note 92, at 336.
188. This was already expressed in very blunt terms by Fred Rossel as early as 1936 in a very provocative article, ('Goodbye Law Reviews', 23 Virginia L Rev (1936-1937) 42.
189. See generally Koskenniemi, 'Fragmentation of International Law? Postmodern Anxieties', 15 Leiden J Int'l L (2002) 553.
190. O. Schachter, International Law in Theory and Practice (1995)
191. Dunoff, supra note 98, at 86.
192. For an illustration of the public role that scholars may play according to the conception submitted here see Craven, Marks, Simpson, and Wilde, 'We Are Teachers of International Law', 17 Leiden J Int'l L (2004) 363
193. see also the 'appel de juristes de droit international concernant le recours à la force contre l'Irak' initiated by the Centre de droit international of the Free University of Brussels (ULB) in Jan. 2003, available at: www.ridi.org/adi/special/index.htm.
194. See, for instance, the Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL): Anghie and Chimni, 'Third World Approaches to International Law and Individual Responsibility in Internal Conflicts', 2 Chinese J Int'l L (2003) 77
195. Chimni, 'Alternative Visions of Just World Order: Six Tales from India', 46 Harvard Int'l LJ (2005) 389.
196. See in general the criticisms raised against such a traditional conception of scholarship by Horkheimer and Cox. On this question see Marks, supra note 84, at 121-146.
197. See the comments of Goldsmith on the current normative trends in international legal scholarship, 94 ASIL Proceedings (2000) 317, at 319.
198. See Cass, supra note 95, at 342.
199. See d'Aspremont, 'Uniting Pragmatism and Theory in International Legal Scholarship: Koskenniemi's From Apology to Utopia revisited', 19 Revue québecoise de droit international (2007) 353.
200. See also d'Aspremont, 'International Law as a Grammar' (2006), available at: www.globallawbooks.org.