Compliance in International Law
- LAST MODIFIED: 28 October 2020
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199796953-0213
- LAST MODIFIED: 28 October 2020
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199796953-0213
Introduction
The means to ensure compliance with international law differ considerably from those applying in internal law. The latter rely primarily on enforcement by the authority of the state which imposes obedience. Such superior authority does not exist in international relations; international law rather relies on voluntary compliance. But means and methods to ensure such voluntary compliance exist, and over the centuries, they have undergone considerable changes and refinements. As there is a certain strand of opinion denying the character of international law as law because of the (alleged) lack of effective enforcement, a first area of discussion relates to this question, namely whether or why international law, in the light of the compliance problem, is really law. There are classical texts on this issue, which have triggered, and are the basis of, a profound theoretical discussion where the theory of international relations meets with legal theory, including a historical dimension. This leads to an empirical look on circumstances favoring compliance (compliance pulls) of different types: norm internalization, concern for a state’s reputation, sanctions (organized and regulated value deprivation), and withholding certain benefits from a state unless the states complies with certain norms (conditionality). To address the question of compliance only for international law as a whole would be an oversimplification. There are various types of internationally relevant acts to be complied with (standards of compliance) involving particular problems (treaties, customary law, judgments, decisions of international organizations, “soft law”). Various subjects of compliance, i.e., actors or entities whose compliance is at stake, namely states, international organizations, non-state actors, have to be distinguished. All this is the basis for a closer look at means to ensure compliance which have indeed undergone a notable development. Traditional means were, and still are, bilateral in character: bilateral dispute settlement and value deprivation in the relation between a state acting unlawfully and another state trying to make the former state respect the law, traditionally called “reprisal” (or, as the case may be, “retortion”), in the modern terminology “countermeasures.” This traditional tool is still practiced, but it is to a large extent replaced or supplemented by a wide array of other means designed to ensure compliance: individual remedies at the national or international level, international criminal law, special compliance procedures. In connection with all these means, ascertaining facts plays a major role. An important method for this purpose is the so-called reporting system, used in various contexts. In these different procedures, different actors play a role. These are not only the genuine parties to the procedures, but also third parties. Guardians of the public interest, in particular intergovernmental organizations, guide or perform these procedures. The fragmentation of international law has also led to a fragmentation or multiplication of area-specific compliance procedures, i.e., specialized procedures for certain areas of international law, most often for single treaty regimes. These specific procedural set-ups relate inter alia to human rights, arms control and disarmament, the law of armed conflict, environmental law, cultural relations (UNESCO), the law of the sea, and international economic relations.
General Overviews
Comprehensive overviews on problems of compliance are provided in different bibliographical contexts: in an encyclopedia type form (Bothe 2012, Wuerth 2019) or as chapters in books on general international law (Luck and Doyle 2004, Sandholtz and Whytock 2017)
Bothe, Michael. Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law. Edited by Rüdiger Wolfrum. 2012.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
This article synthesizes the various problems and sub-problems which are the object of this bibliography. The entry is currently under review.
Luck, Edward C., and Michael W. Doyle. International Law and Organization: Closing the Compliance Gap. Lanham, MD: Rowan & Littlefield, 2004.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
A collection of essays on compliance in various fields of international law: trade and finance, climate change, law of armed conflict, arms control, and disarmament.
Sandholtz, Wayne, and Chistopher A. Whytock, eds. Research Handbook on the Politics of International Law. Cheltenham, UK, and Northampton, MA: Elgar, 2017.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Analyses of various problem areas relating to governance and compliance, giving a good overall picture of compliance issues.
Wuerth, Ingrid. “Compliance.” In Concepts for International Law. Edited by D’Aspremont Jean and Sahib Singh, 117–126. Cheltenham, UK, and Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar, 2019.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
A thoughtful chapter in a thoughtful recent book presenting key issues of international law in encyclopedia style articles.
Your subscription doesn't include the subject of this book.
Article
- Act of State Doctrine
- Africa and Intellectual Property Rights for Plant Varietie...
- African Approaches to International Law
- African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights and the Af...
- Africa’s International Intellectual Property Law Regimes
- Africa’s International Investment Law Regimes
- Agreements, Bilateral and Regional Trade
- Agreements, Multilateral Environmental
- Aliens
- Applicable Law in Investment Agreements
- Archipelagic States
- Arctic Region
- Armed Opposition Groups
- Aut Dedere Aut Judicare
- Balance of Power
- Bandung Conference, The
- Boundaries
- British Mandate of Palestine and International Law, The
- Children's Rights
- Civil Service, International
- Civil-Military Relations
- Codification
- Cold War International Law
- Collective Security
- Command Responsibility
- Common Heritage of Mankind
- Complementarity Principle
- Compliance in International Law
- Conspiracy/Joint Criminal Enterprise
- Constitutional Law, International
- Consular Relations
- Contemporary Catholic Approaches
- Continental Shelf, Idea and Limits of the
- Cooperation in Criminal Matters, Cross-Border
- Countermeasures
- Courts, International
- Crimes against Humanity
- Criminal Law, International
- Cultural Rights
- Cyber Espionage
- Cyber Warfare
- Debt, Sovereign
- Decolonization in International Law
- Democracy
- Development Law, International
- Disarmament in International Law
- Discrimination
- Disputes, Peaceful Settlement of
- Drugs, International Regulation, and Criminal Liability
- Early 19th Century, 1789-1870
- Ecological Restoration and International Law
- Economic Law, International
- Effectiveness and Evolution in Treaty Interpretation
- Enforced Disappearances in International Law
- Enforcement of Human Rights
- Environmental Compliance Mechanisms
- Environmental Institutions, International
- Environmental Law, International
- Estoppel
- European Arrest Warrant
- Extraterritorial Application of Human Rights Treaties
- Fascism and International Law
- Feminist Approaches to International Law
- Financial Law, International
- Forceful Intervention for Protection of Human Rights in Af...
- Foreign Investment
- Fragmentation
- Freedom of Expression
- French Revolution
- Gender and International Law, Theoretical and Methodologic...
- Gender and International Security
- General Customary Law
- General Principles of Law
- Genocide
- Georgia and International Law
- Grotius, Hugo
- Habeas Corpus
- Hijaz and International Law, The
- History of International Law, 1550–1700
- Hostilities, Direct Participation in
- Human Rights
- Human Rights and Regional Protection, Relativism and Unive...
- Human Rights, European Court of
- Human Rights, Foundations of
- Human Trafficking
- Hybrid International Criminal Tribunals
- Immunities
- Immunity, Sovereign
- Indigenous Peoples
- Individual Criminal Responsibility
- Institutional Law
- Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and Inte...
- International and Non-International Armed Conflict, Detent...
- International Committee of the Red Cross
- International Community
- International Court of Justice
- International Criminal Court, The
- International Criminal Law, Complicity in
- International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)
- International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia ...
- International Fisheries Law
- International Humanitarian Law
- International Humanitarian Law, Targeting in
- International Investment Agreements, Fair and Equitable Tr...
- International Investment Arbitration
- International Investment Law, Expropriation in
- International Law, Aggression in
- International Law, Amnesty and
- International Law and Economic Development
- International Law, Anthropology and
- International Law, Big Data and
- International Law, Climate Change and
- International Law, Derogations and Reservations in
- International Law, Dispute Settlement in
- International Law, Ecofeminism and
- International Law, Espionage in
- International Law, Hegemony in
- International Law in Greek
- International Law in Italian
- International Law in Northeast Asia
- International Law in Portuguese
- International Law in Turkish
- International Law, Marxist Approaches to
- International Law, Military Intervention in
- International Law, Money Laundering in
- International Law, Monism and Dualism in
- International Law, Peacekeeping in
- International Law, Proportionality in
- International Law, Reasonableness in
- International Law, Recognition in
- International Law, Self-Determination in
- International Law, State Responsibility in
- International Law, State Succession in
- International Law, the State in
- International Law, The Turkish-Greek Population Exchange a...
- International Law, the Turn to History in
- International Law, Trade and Development in
- International Law, Unequal Treaties in
- International Law, Use of Force in
- International Regulation of the Internet
- International Rule of Law, An
- International Territorial Administration
- International Trade and Human Rights
- Intervention, Humanitarian
- Investment Protection Treaties
- Investor-State Conciliation and Mediation
- Iran and International Law
- Iraq War, Britain and the
- Islamic Cooperation, International Law and the Organizatio...
- Islamic International Law
- Islamic Law and Human Rights
- Islands
- Jerusalem
- Jurisdiction
- Jurisprudence (Judicial Law-Making)
- Jus Cogens
- Just War
- Landlocked Countries and the Law of the Sea
- Law of the Sea
- Law of Treaties, The
- Law-Making by Non-State Actors
- League of Nations, The
- Lebanon, Special Tribunal for
- Legal Status of Military Forces Abroad
- Liability for International Environmental Harm
- Liberation and Resistance Movements
- Mandates in International Law
- Maritime Delimitation
- Martens Clause
- Medieval International Law
- Mens Rea, International Crimes
- Middle East Boundaries and State Formation
- Migration
- Military Necessity
- Military Occupation
- Minorities
- Modes of Participation
- Most-Favored-Nation Clauses
- Multinational Corporations in International Law
- Nationality and Statelessness
- Natural Law
- Neutrality
- New Approaches to International Law
- New Haven School of International Law, The
- Non liquet
- Noninternational Armed Conflict (“Civil War”)
- Nonstate Actors
- Nuclear Non-Proliferation
- Nuremberg Trials
- Organizations, International
- Pacifism in International Law
- Palestine (and the Israel Question)
- Peace Treaties
- Piracy
- Political Science, International Law and
- Positivism
- Private Military and Security Companies
- Protection, Diplomatic
- Public Interest, Human Rights, and Foreign Investment
- Queering International Law
- Rational Choice Theory
- Recognition of Foreign Penal Judgments
- Refugees
- Rendition, Extraterritorial Abduction, and Extraordinary R...
- Reparations
- Russian Approaches to International Law
- Sanctions, International
- Sanctions, International
- Secession
- Self-Defense
- Slavery
- Soft Law
- Space Law
- Spanish School of International Law (c. 16th and 17th Cent...
- Sports Law, International
- State of Necessity
- Superior Orders
- Taba Arbitration, The
- Teaching International Law
- Territorial Title
- Terrorism
- The 1948 Arab-Israeli Conflict and International Law
- The Ottoman Empire and International Law
- Theory, Critical International Legal
- Tibet
- Tokyo Trials, The
- Torture
- Transnational Constitutionalism, Africa and
- Transnational Corruption
- Treaty Interpretation
- Ukrainian Approaches
- UN Partition Plan for Palestine and International Law, The
- UN Security Council, Women and the
- Underwater Cultural Heritage
- Unilateral Acts
- United Nations and its Principal Organs, The
- Universal Jurisdiction
- Uti Possidetis Iuris
- Vatican and the Holy See
- Victims’ Rights, International Criminal Law, and Proceedin...
- War Crimes
- Watercourses, International
- Western Sahara