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This introductory chapter discusses the objectives and the scope of the book, and argues for the importance of a normative approach to international administrations. It explores three important methodological questions: first, in what ways can norms affect the activities of international administrations; second, how can we conceptualize and operationalize the ‘international community’ that creates and staffs these international administrations; and third, the selection of case studies.

This essay examines the International Community School (ICS), a public charter school near Atlanta, Georgia, that brings refugee, immigrant, and local U.S. children together in one educational environment as a microcosmic global civic space in an emerging global civil society. It focuses on the local and particular instantiations of globalization, paying special attention to the role of religions.

Describes how the international community has sought to advance the consolidation of democracy, transformation to a market economy, promotion of regional peace and security, and the protection of human and minority rights in the area of former Yugoslavia. This chapter defines the ‘international community’ as comprising all external actors engaged in seeking to resolve the Yugoslav crisis, including the joint activities of the European Union, USA, and Russia. Given the conflicts in Croatia and Bosnia‐Hercegovina, as well as the Kosovo crisis in 1999, external actors gave priority to peace building over the promotion of democratic goals. The first part of the chapter analyses the role of international factors in the disintegration of Yugoslavia, concentrating on the new states of Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia‐Hercegovina, Macedonia, and rump Yugoslavia. The second part examines the Dayton Accord as an example of direct external engagement to promote peace in the region. The third part analyses the main Western plans, the regional approach of the EU and US approaches, which seek the promotion of security through cooperation in the region. This part also assesses the policies adopted by external actors, and their efficiency in contributing to regional peace and security.

The notion of international community is en vogue and pervades international law. Curiously, there are no shared understandings, however, among international lawyers about what this community is or should be. Without a clear conception of the nature, boundaries, and constituency of the community or communities concerned by international law-making and of the ways to link their interests and decisions back to national political communities, efforts made to institutionalize global democracy, or at least to develop mechanisms of international accountability are seriously hindered.Based on republican premises, this chapter argues that the international community should be conceived as a community of both States and individuals and constructed as multilevel, multilateral, and pluralistic. It refines the controversial criterion of inclusion in the international political community and addresses the vexed question of the responsibility for inclusion.

On 1 Nov 1994, the UN Trusteeship Council voted to suspend operations after Palau, the last remaining trust territory, attained independence. The sovereign state has emerged out of decolonization as the supreme form of political organization in post‐colonial international society—an international society in which dominions, colonies, principalities, free cities, and, of course, mandates and trust territories have all but vanished. However, the ostensible failure of this post‐colonial project—the fact that the promise of peace and prosperity held out by independent statehood is too often betrayed by appalling violence and absolute poverty—has reinvigorated interest in trusteeship as a way of responding to problems of international disorder and injustice. The purpose of this chapter is threefold: first, it examines the principal dilemma of decolonization that has resulted in a renewed interest in trusteeship; second, it considers this renewed interest in trusteeship in the context of international involvement in administering Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and, until recently, East Timor; third, it reflects upon the normative implications that a resurrected practice of trusteeship carries for a society of states that is premised on the juridical equality of all its members. The five sections of the chapter are: The False Promise of post‐Colonial Independence; Innovation and Convention—the case for trusteeship in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and East Timor; The New International Legitimacy—the resurrection of trusteeship; A Universal Society of States?; and Answering the Call of Humanity.

Addresses concerns regarding the future status of Kosovo and analyses five possible alternatives: protectorate, partition, full independence, autonomy within a democratic Yugoslavia and conditional independence. The chapter recommends conditional independence as the future status of Kosovo, arguing for a constitutional regime that: (1) ensures respect of all Kosovo citizens’ rights to determine their future, (2) incorporates the role of the international community in providing external security and internal rights protection, (3) ensures full and equal political participation of all Kosovo citizens, (4) guarantees a wide set of internationally protected minority rights and (5) assures minority representation in the police, judiciary, and the government.

Compares Northern Ireland with Cyprus, Puerto Rico, Corsica, East Timor, and Sri Lanka. Guelke argues that the fact that Northern Ireland is a partitioned part of an island helps explain why the international community tends to favour a united Ireland. This is because there is an international norm that islands, as natural units, should be under one jurisdiction. International support for the Agreement can be explained, according to Guelke, by its inclusion of all‐island political institutions. Any attempt to weaken these will result in reduced international support.

This chapter begins with a discussion of how interdependence shapes international law. The increase in international integration over the last century has shaped international law, with rules guiding inter-state cooperation commensurate with the increase in their interdependence. Sovereignty has gradually given way to demands that a state under the international order comply with its international duties and obligations. The changing international environment has resulted in the re-orientation of priorities: states are to act faithfully on the duties they owe to each other, and on the duties owed to a wider international community. The chapter then discusses economic globalization as a structural impediment to the exercise of human rights, poverty as a human rights issue, the structural approach to realizing human rights, and the right to development.

Ch. 8 argued for combining a rather restrained, justice‐based view of the unilateral right to secede, the Remedial Right Only Theory, with a much more supportive stance toward forms of self‐determination within the state: various forms of intrastate autonomy. This chapter argues that the international legal order ought to acknowledge the importance of self‐determination by supporting intrastate autonomy, and also suggests that, apart from the role that international law should play, individual states should generally give serious consideration to proposals for intrastate autonomy. The chapter first makes the case for including in the domain of transnational justice the monitoring and enforcement of intrastate autonomy regimes under certain rather exceptional circumstances, and then, in the last section, suggests that even where principles of transnational justice do not require it, there are cases in which the international community might play a constructive role by providing diplomatic support and economic inducements or pressure to encourage the creation and well‐functioning of intrastate autonomy regimes. The five sections of the chapter are: I. Intrastate Autonomy and Transnational Justice; II. Indigenous Peoples’ Rights; III. Justifications for Intrastate Autonomy for Indigenous Peoples; IV. Basic Individual Human Rights as Limits on Intrastate Autonomy; and V. International Support for Intrastate Autonomy: Beyond the Requirements of Transnational Justice.

This chapter explores the extent to which modern recognition of an ‘ international community’ influences the relationship between international and national law. It shows that domestic courts do not regard the ‘international community’ as a repository of moral values or laws superior to their own. International law, as the law of the international community, will be regarded as formal authority only in the instance domestic law renders it binding for the court in question. Domestic law, not international law continues to determine the breadth of the influence of international law in the domestic legal order. International community values may however inform the understanding of principles and values enshrined in domestic law. In this respect, the ‘international community’ is not regarded as a higher authority, but as one of several influences that weigh on the decision of an actual case, and often not the controlling one.

Compares different paths of democratic consolidation in Belarus and Ukraine since the disintegration of the USSR. The author argues that Ukraine has evolved beyond ‘Electoral Democracy’ towards ‘ Liberal Democracy’. By contrast, after 1994 Belarus has seen democratic erosion and regression from ‘Electoral Democracy’ to authoritarianism. The chapter advances three propositions. Firstly, the strength of ethnicity and national identity at the start of transition process can have a direct impact upon the choice of strategy, speed, and domestic policies adopted by the ruling elites. Secondly, the elites have little choice but to choose a foreign policy orientated towards ‘returning to Europe’—the source of security assurance and technical and financial assistance. Thirdly, the international community can play a highly positive role by providing incentives and assistance that persuade countries that have embarked on democratization to continue the process in the hope of reaching the final destination of democratic consolidation. The chapter is divided into three parts. The first places the transition in Ukraine, Belarus, and the rest of the former USSR within a theoretical and comparative framework by focusing on domestic factors. The second part discusses the international influences faced by a country that has participated in the reform process (Ukraine), and Russian influences on a country that has not done so (Belarus). The last two parts examine Ukraine's ‘return to Europe’ and Belarus’ ‘return to Eurasia’.

This chapter examines the actors engaged in constructing international law as a set of rules. It argues that states remain at the heart of global governance by exercising jurisdictional power in a partitioned and relatively coordinated way within a global state-centred system in which non-state actors constantly shape states' behaviour. The whole of such interaction denotes what is called the ‘international community’. The chapter first explores the meaning of global governance, public and private authority, and international community. Then, it discusses states and a variety of non-state players. Finally, it explores the concept of international legal personality, concluding that it is often used as a tool for manipulation to favour one or another ‘deserving’ player.

This chapter analyzes transnational efforts to develop a global competition regime during the first half of the 20th century. It reveals that these early experiences were far richer and had far more influence on subsequent developments than is typically assumed. At the International Economic Conference in 1926 there was widespread international concern about the effects of private restraints on global competition, and there was broad support for multilateral agreement to combat these harms. Depression and war submerged the idea, but it acquired even more support after the Second World War, when it was included in the proposals for an International Trade Organization that was part of the post-war plans to create international economic organizations that could foster economic development and deter economic disruptions. The Cold War forced the US to abandon plans for the ITO, but competition law had now become well-known in many countries, and these early experiences would influence not only many national developments, but also European integration.

Stephen Zunes compares and contrasts territorial disputes and forces that have attempted to influence outcome of Indonesian occupation of East Timor and Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara. The author concludes that the institutionalization of expanded borders led to resistance to state downsizing, and that opportunities for withdrawal from the occupied territory emerged in Indonesia only with the fall of the Sukharto regime and subsequent democratization. The author also shows how great power politics of the Cold War enabled the occupations, and the post‐Cold War international community was an obstacle to the full integration of the territories into the two states.

This chapter discusses the law which the international community believes to be international law. It examines how the rules and other normative standards of international law are made, integrated, reconciled, changed, judicially applied, complied with, implemented within states, and enforced. It argues that all international law rules and judicial decisions are ultimately grounded in custom as a basic form of social, informal pressure by the states system and that no ‘private affair’ is conceivable in the system even when rules apply only to particular states. The identification of the rules of international law is loosely inspired by the doctrine of the sources of law originally developed in the domestic legal systems of a few Western states and by other criteria capable of ensuring a relatively systemic unity, coherence, and completeness. Much of the credibility of international law rather depends on its domestic implementation by the states themselves.

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) began to develop in Palestine after the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967, but only a few of these can be considered peace and conflict‐resolution organizations (P/CROs). P/CRO growth was hindered by the culture of antagonism with Israel, the neopatriarchal structure of Palestinian society and the autocracy of the Palestinian Authority, and the Israeli occupation's stifling effect on civil society, and many Palestinians have preferred armed resistance. P/CROs were usually internally democratic; ideology played an important role in success or failure, most relied on international funding, and all either regarded themselves as complementing the Palestinian Authority or monitoring it. P/CRO activities included human rights advocacy, the representation of Palestinian interests to the international community, and domestic consciousness raising. However, the P/CRO contribution to peace building has been insignificant, and the true Palestinian “peace camp” is the Palestinian Authority.

Describes how the Slovenian transition from communism to democratic consolidation influenced the institutional engineering in Slovenia. Since there was no real tradition of statehood or experience with state‐building in Slovenia, the establishment of a new constitutional structure after its break from Yugoslavia was immensely important both as a foundation for the new political and economic system and as the country's calling card for entry into the international community. The chapter indicates the positive and negative aspects of institutional engineering in Slovenia. Although Slovenian political elites arrived at a consensus on almost all of the pressing issues involved in democracy‐ and state‐building quickly, the result of the quick adoption of the Constitution left important issues unresolved, and ultimately hampered the legislative process. Despite the political turbulence that continues to dominate Slovene politics, democratic consolidation in Slovenia can be regarded as largely achieved.

This chapter addresses the sources of cooperation for economic, social and cultural rights in international law, and explores the contemporary content of this obligation. Drawing on a broad range of hard and soft law instruments, the centrality of international cooperation for addressing the deprivations of poverty is reaffirmed legally, and given shape operationally. The complementary principle of a shared responsibility for human rights, recently pronounced by the international community, strengthens this legal obligation to cooperate internationally.

This chapter examines the general question of the relationship between constituent power and constitutional form in the general context of the international community. It first considers the emergence of ‘international constitutional law’ — the idea of an emerging constitutional law of the international community — and then specifically examines the case for the UN Charter being treated as such a constitution. Working on the assumption that the UN Charter can be treated as the constitution of the international community, the chapter gives sympathetic consideration to the idea that there is an equivalent to ‘the people’ as an authorizing agent in the international arena.

The arguments over humanitarian intervention were brought to a head in the Spring of 1999 when, faced with the brutal repression of the ethnic Albanian population in the Serbian province of Kosovo, NATO planes bombed Serbian targets between 24 March 1999 and 10 June 1999. The debates in parliament were intense over the Kosovo intervention. The level of discussion over the international legal basis of the operation both within the House of Commons and the country was unprecedented. The greater reliance on seeking Parliamentary support could be due to the lack of a clear international legal basis for the British decision to contribute air power to the operation (even though it was a NATO operation), but could also be due to the proposed mode of protecting human rights — by bombing from a safe height.