More than a decade after the emergence of public law approaches to international institutions, such as Global Administrative Law, Global Constitutionalism, or International Public Authority, the international order has changed dramatically. The Trump administration and Brexit epitomize a growing trend against global governance. What had once been taken for granted – the proliferation of institutional...
“We didn‘t start the fire“: The Exercise of Authority in NAFTA Dispute Settlement and the Nationalist Backlash
As the discourse of economic nationalism seems to have gained political momentum, international trade and investment law stand at the eye of the storm. NAFTA, in particular, has (re)emerged as a point of contention more than twenty-four years after its entry into force. The threat of withdrawal by officials from the United States of America...
Judicial backlash in inter-American human rights law
After a steady process of influence upon states, both the Court and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights are subject today to significant and direct challenges from states. From the use of diplomatic mechanisms to contain the powers of human rights bodies, to the challenges by domestic courts of the doctrines of the Inter-American Court,...
Nationalism with a ‘human‘ face (under the veil of integration): Is the ECtHR allowing and thus fueling nationalist politics?
Recent judgments of the ECtHR provide nationalists with an opportunity to promote a nationalist discourse that is seemingly in line with human rights, but fundamentally at odds with the counter-majoritarian core of human rights. The analysis focuses on several judgments in which the ECtHR accepts arguments of liberal democratic states to infringe fundamental rights of...
The Nationalist Challenge to Human Rights Courts: On Resilience and Conflict Management of the ECtHR
International courts find themselves in the center of the current backlash against international law. In most cases, the backlash against international courts manifests itself in severe challenges to the authority of a court in public discourse, through its politicization, and the non-implementation of judgments. Human rights courts as agents of counter-majoritarian interests are particularly prone...
The Sovereigntist Challenge – Backlash to International Institutions and Public Law Theories
Since the end of the cold war the proliferation of international institutions and courts have strengthened the rule of law at the international level. Today, however even liberal-democratic states question the liberal internationalism on which the international legal system has been based. I argue that the United States, South Africa and India justify the exit...