Abstract
When democracies wage war, they ‘know’ that they have the law on their side. The same holds true when they condemn war. But what if democracies take divergent legal positions to one and the same war? Relying on governmental and public ‘Iraq’ discourses in the United States and Germany, this article argues that governments can no longer define the law in isolation from their societal environments. The critical relation of ‘politics,” ‘law,’ and ‘democracy’ is increasingly established not only in the political centers of states but also in the periphery: in the public discourse. This discursive process of international law becoming ‘public’ cannot be ignored. However, the patterns of meaning of international law vary remarkably. While there is public politics of international law in democracies, a per se ‘democratic’ politics of international law is hardly recognizable.
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- 1.
Schachter 1977.
- 2.
Jürgen Habermas and his intervention in the debate on humanitarian intervention during the Kosovo crisis in 1999 might be a good example, see Habermas 1999.
- 3.
Critical: Friel and Falk 2004.
- 4.
Fischer-Lescano 2005.
- 5.
Laclau and Mouffe 2001.
- 6.
For a more detailed, book-length analysis, see Liste 2012.
- 7.
Morgenthau 1933, p. 26.
- 8.
Morgenthau 1929, p. 170.
- 9.
- 10.
- 11.
Following Antonio Gramsci, common sense is ‘the conception of the world which is uncritically absorbed by the various social and cultural environments in which the moral individuality of the average man is developed.’ See Gramsci 1971, p. 419.
- 12.
- 13.
- 14.
- 15.
White House, National Security Strategy of the United States, September 2002, p. 15.
- 16.
- 17.
President Bush, Speech at the UN General Assembly, 12 September 2002, UN-Document A/57/PV.2.
- 18.
President Bush, Remarks at Swearing-In Ceremony for William Donaldson as the New Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, White House, 18 February 2003.
- 19.
Secretary Rumsfeld, Beyond Nation Building, 11th Annual Salute to Freedom, Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum, New York City, 14 February 2003.
- 20.
Minister of State Bury, Bundestag, 16 May 2003, BT-Drucksache 15/988, p. 2 (translation by the author).
- 21.
Interview with Bundesaußenminister Fischer, ‘Ich sehe keine Verbindung zwischen Irak und Al-Qaida,’ Süddeutsche Zeitung, 7 August 2002, p. 9.
- 22.
For the concept of chain of equivalence: Laclau and Mouffe 2001, p. 131.
- 23.
Interview with Bundesaußenminister Fischer, ‘Was nun?’ ZDF (German TV channel), 26 February 2003.
- 24.
Liste 2012.
- 25.
- 26.
Richard Cohen, ‘Ready for War,’ Washington Post, 10 October 2002, A33.
- 27.
Richard Cohen, ‘A Winning Hand for Powell’, Washington Post, 6 February 2003, A37.
- 28.
For a historical argument on how President Truman has prudently kept in mind both the US allies and questions of international legitimacy, see Thomas E. Mann, ‘What Bush Can Learn from Truman,’ New York Times, 6 October 2002, p. 13.
- 29.
Robert Kagan, ‘Multilateralism, American Style’, Washington Post, 13 September 2002, A39.
- 30.
Jim Hoagland, ‘Foxed by Illusionist Partners’, Washington Post, 22 December 2002, B07.
- 31.
Richard Cohen, ‘Ready for War’, Washington Post, 10 October 2002, A33.
- 32.
Bruce Ackerman, ‘The Legality of Using Force,’ New York Times, 21 September 2002, p. 15.
- 33.
Francis Fukuyama, ‘U.S. vs. Them’, Washington Post, 11 September 2002, A17.
- 34.
Nikolas Busse, ‘Wer in der Welt bestimmt’, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 11 March 2003, p. 1.
- 35.
For the discourse theoretic concept of over-determination, see Laclau and Mouffe 2001.
- 36.
Stefan Ulrich, ‘Im Club der Unbeugsamen’, Süddeutsche Zeitung, 17 March 2003, p. 4.
- 37.
Berthold Kohler, ‘Mit Amerika’, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 25 March 2003, p. 1.
- 38.
Berthold Kohler, ‘Noch ein Grund’, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 21 March 2003, p. 1.
- 39.
Heribert Prantl, ‘Recht bleibt Recht, aber nur solange es passt’, Süddeutsche Zeitung, 22 March 2003, p. 4.
- 40.
Günther Nonnenmacher, ‘Rechtszweifel’, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, March 22, 2003, p. 1.
- 41.
Nikolas Busse, ‘Wer in der Welt bestimmt’, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 11 March 2003, p. 1.
- 42.
Stefan Ulrich, ‘Mut zum Nein’, Süddeutsche Zeitung, 26 February 2002, p. 4.
- 43.
Patrick Bahners, ‘Willensfrage’, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 14 February 2003, p. 31.
- 44.
E.g. Secretary Rumsfeld replying during an interview that ‘any country has the right to do anything, so I don't know what the meaning of your question is’, Secretary Rumsfeld, Interview with LBC TV and Al Hayat Newspaper, 4 December 2002.
- 45.
For the concept of fidelity, see Brunnée and Toope 2010.
- 46.
I owe this formulation to Lothar Brock.
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Liste, P. (2012). ‘Public’ International Law? Democracy and Discourses of Legal Reality. In: Dekker, I., Hey, E. (eds) Netherlands Yearbook of International Law 2011. Netherlands Yearbook of International Law, vol 42. T.M.C. Asser Press, The Hague, The Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-6704-849-1_7
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