Acceso usuarios
Alec Stone Sweet, Mads Andenas
The paper argues for the centrality of GPLs [general principles of law] as a primary source of international law. GPLs constitute basic building blocks of systemic coherence, both internally and between regimes (Part I). Focusing on them casts a bright light on judicial lawmaking, the fate of the “fragmentation” of international law, and inter-court dialogue. Debating the topic within the field of general public international law reveals fundamentally different “traditionalist” and “progressive” camps (Part II). In the meantime, the courts and tribunals of regional and specialized treaty regimes have constructed semi-autonomous domains of inter-locking principles, transcending jurisdictional boundaries, altering the nature and scope of international law and the decision-making of powerful domestic courts (Part V). The law and politics of GPLs have now become prominent, as the International Court of Justice (Part III) and the International Law Commission (Part IV) have recently moved to recognize, and contribute to, the development of GPLs. In the conclusion, we address an intractable dilemma: in developing principles, as a means of enhancing the effectiveness of international legal systems, judges reveal gaps between state consent and control, potentially undermining their own support.
