With apologies for cross-posting
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Dear all
we are happy to announce the latest issues of ConWEB. Constitutionalism
Webpapers:
Silviya Lechner (University of Wales, Aberystwyth):
"Equality, Authority, and the Locus of International Order"
http://www.qub.ac.uk/pisp/FileStore/ConWEBFiles/Filetoupload,60805,en.pdf
The puzzle of international society has long occupied International
Relations (IR) theory, but it lends itself to a clearer articulation in
legal positivist theory. On strict legal positivist terms, international
society is defined as a compact of legal equals, states. However if
states claim to belong to a social order they ought to recognise a
common authority. Authority is a form of hierarchy—‘authoritative’ means
‘one that cannot be overridden’, ‘one of a higher standing’. The paradox
of international society then is this: state relations are organised
horizontally and each state is seen as independent from other states,
but at the same time these relations seem to be organised hierarchically
because each state is dependent on an authority other than its own. As I
argue, the crux of the matter depends on clarifying where authority
resides, not who holds it. After discussing authority in political
theory (Jean Bodin, Thomas Hobbes, Carl Schmitt, Giorgio Agamben), the
essay goes on to articulate a concept of international authority
compatible with an equality-of-states principle. Crucially, this concept
rests on what I call ‘rule-based legal positivism’ traceable to the
writings of H.L.A. Hart. The question of international authority thus
invites us to attend to the conversation of three traditions: IR theory,
political theory, and legal theory.
Previous Issues can be found under:
http://www.qub.ac.uk/pisp/Research/PaperSeries/ConWEBPapers/
ConWEB is also included in ERPA - European Research Papers Archive
http://eiop.or.at/erpa/
On behalf of the editors
Antje Wiener, Queen's University, Belfast
Jutta Brunnée, University of Toronto
kind regards,
Thomas Pfister
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School of Politics, Int. Studies & Philosophy
Queen's University
Belfast BT7 1NN
UK- Northern Ireland
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