The Fluid State International Law and National Legal Systems

This book analyses some of the national contexts in which international law and domestic law interact and identifies the way in which attitudes to international law shift between them. Some of the questions considered are: How do perceptions of international law differ according to particular institutional vantage-points, whether that of the executive, the legislature, or the judiciary? What is the impact of the perceived "democratic deficit" in international treaty-making? What are some of the ways in which the judiciary acts as a gatekeeper between the national and international legal orders? How does national politics influence engagement with the international sphere? The contributors bring a range of different perspectives: politics, law, and international relations.

Traditional accounts of the relationship between international and national law present the interaction between the two as relatively ordered, if conflicting. This limited view of the relationship has become outmoded, as the scope of international legal regulation and the internationalised context of domestic law continue to expand. This book analyses some of the national contexts in which international law and domestic law interact and identifies the way in which attitudes to international law shift between them. Some of the questions considered are: How do perceptions of international law differ according to particular institutional vantage-points, whether that of the executive, the legislature or the judiciary? What is the impact of the perceived democratic deficit in international treaty-making? What are some of the ways in which the judiciary acts as a gatekeeper between the national and international legal orders? How does national politics influence engagement with the international sphere?