International Law Through Time: On Change and Facticity of International Law

Van der Ploeg, Klara Polackova; Pasquet, Luca

Abstract

International law has proved to be a highly dynamic legal order over time. However, dealing with change in international law is both analytically demanding and possibly normatively unsettling. The term ‘change’ regularly refers to distinct dimensions of change in relation to international law, ranging from alterations in its substantive content to the interplay between international law and its underlying social and physical reality. This conceptual heterogeneity has at times convoluted the consideration of the topic. When conceptualizing international law as a process of continuous change over time, ‘practice’ emerges as the key normative vehicle enabling international law’s dynamism. The continuous normative responsiveness of international law to social reality—international law’s ‘facticity’—actually operates as a defining characteristic of international law. The dynamic processes of change have regularly produced concerns about the stability as a necessary precondition for international law’s capacity to provide the requisite normative framework for social action in the international domain. At the same time, commentators have suggested that international law’s lawmaking tools may be inadequate for the realities of contemporary international relations due to the asynchrony between international law’s formal sources and social acceleration. However, both of these apprehensions seem overstated.

Citation

Van der Ploeg, K. P., & Pasquet, L. (2022). International Law Through Time: On Change and Facticity of International Law. In K. Polackova Van der Ploeg, L. Pasquet, & L. Castellanos-Jankiewicz (Eds.), International Law and Time: Narratives and Techniques (313-333). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-09465-1_15

• Online Publication Date: Dec 14, 2022
• Publication Date: Dec 14, 2022
• Deposit Date: Jun 13, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 15, 2024
• Pages: 313-333
• Series Title: Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice
• Series Number: 101
• Book Title: International Law and Time: Narratives and Techniques
• ISBN: 9783031094644
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-09465-1_15
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/8132947
• Publisher URL: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-09465-1_15
• Additional Information: First Online: 14 December 2022
• Contract Date: May 5, 2022