Abstract
In contrast to theories that seek to find necessary and sufficient conditions which individuate law as a system of rules, Miodrag A. Jovanović provides a fruitful rethinking of the nature of law. Building on Frederick Schauer’s work, Jovanović identifies prototypical features of law that teach us about law’s characteristics, but dispense with the notion that they must be jointly present in all instances we categorize as law. This new approach opens up prolific new ways of thinking about the nature of international law. Jovanović proposes four such features:1) its function to provide rules of behavior and dispute settlement, 2) institutionality, 3) coercive guaranteeing, and 4) justice-aptness. He argues that international law displays them to a sufficient degree for us to recognize its law-like character. I discuss some of the features of this account and propose three avenues of further developing the idea that international law is justice-apt.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1-8 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Revus |
| Volume | 43 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2020 |
Keywords
- International law
- Justice
- Legal validity
- Procedural justice
- Prototypical theory of law
- Rights protection
- Rule of law