Abstract
In this paper I propose a novel account of international law as a subset of international political argument, in turn understood as a practice of deliberative discourse. I draw on a Habermasian communicative framework to integrate legal and political argument, facilitating a more nuanced and more plausible understanding of how international law and politics interact. Through a detailed examination of two historical cases from the rst decade of the Northern Ireland con ict, involving the United Nations and the European Convention on Human Rights respectively, I illustrate three key dimensions of this framework: the relation between legal and political argument; the relation between domestic and international argument; and the distinction between strategic and communicative uses of legal argument.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 151-203 |
Number of pages | 53 |
Journal | Journal of International Law and International Relations |
Volume | 12 |
Publication status | Published - Apr 2016 |