Legitimacy and Legality in International Law: An Interactional Account, featuring Jutta Brunnée

February 18, 2011Duke Law News

Tuesday, February 22, 2011
12:15 - 1:15 pm | Room 3037
A book sale and author signing will follow immediately after the lecture in the third floor loggia.


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Book Description


It has never been more important to understand how international law enables and constrains international politics. By drawing together the legal theory of Lon Fuller and the insights of constructivist international relations scholars, this book articulates a pragmatic view of how international obligation is created and maintained. First, legal norms can only arise in the context of social norms based on shared understandings. Second, internal features of law, or ‘criteria of legality', are crucial to law's ability to promote adherence, to inspire ‘fidelity'. Third, legal norms are built, maintained or destroyed through a continuing practice of legality. Through case studies of the climate change regime, the anti-torture norm, and the prohibition on the use of force, it is shown that these three elements produce a distinctive legal legitimacy and a sense of commitment among those to whom law is addressed.

Official Book Website
 

About the Author


Jutta Brunnée joined the University of Toronto Law Faculty as a Professor of Law in 2000, and holds the Metcalf Chair in Environmental Law. She holds law degrees from both Dalhousie University and Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Germany, and an undergraduate diploma from the Université de Dijon, France. Prior to her appointment at the Faculty of Law, she taught at the law schools of the University of British Columbia and McGill University. During that time, she served for a year as Scholar-in-Residence at the Oceans, Environmental and Economic Law Division of the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, advising on matters such as the Biodiversity and Climate Change Conventions. She has also participated in numerous Canadian and international initiatives related to environmental issues.

Professor Brunnée's teaching and research interests are in the areas of international law and international environmental law. She has recently written on international law and international relations theory, compliance with international law, the use of force, the domestic application of international law, multilateral environmental agreements, and international environmental liability regimes. She is the author of Acid Rain and Ozone Layer Depletion: International Law and Regulation and is a past editor-in-chief of the Yearbook of International Environmental Law (1997-2001). She has published numerous articles on topics of international environmental law and international law, both in collections of essays and in journals such as the American Journal of International Law, Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, the Harvard International Law Journal, the Leiden Journal of International Law, and the International & Comparative Law Quarterly.

Jutta Brunnée
Legitimacy and Legality in International Law: An Interactional Account