ASTK18215U The Legalization of International Relations

International Relations and International Law scholars have recently developed theories about the relevance of international law and courts for State compliance, diplomacy and inter-state interactions, and the development of national legal systems, that has proved very fruitful in explaining some of the central international relations problems that are of interest to policy and law-makers. This is in part due to the legalization of international relations, which refers to the reality that legal and judicial actors are increasingly involved in defining and shaping international affairs. Legalization is then considered an aspect in which international and domestic actors conceive of their legal and policy options as bounded by what is legally allowed. Moreover, it refers to the process in which international law, in conjunction with the proliferation and role of International Organizations and Courts, confers new rights and obligations to citizens and other domestic and transnational actors.

The goal of this course is to provide masters students with an interdisciplinary perspective for understanding the impact of legalization in international relations. International relations refers to the behaviour of States and non-State actors in the international arena, but also to how international law might affect the multi-level relations between international and domestic actors, and, between actors at the national legal arena. This course will offer an innovate approach to the topic by differentiating from the traditional study of international relationships taking place in the international/global arena, by focusing on the analysis of international relations interactions in multi-level political-legal context. The main reason for focusing on these levels of interactions is the increasing interest in the political science, international relations and law scholarships and disciplines to explain the role that international legal regimes and courts play in shaping domestic society, politics and law.

During the course, students will discuss the limitations and opportunities provided by international relations and law theories. Reflecting on this complementarity will give students an added value that will improve their policy and legal competences and careers prospects as researchers, policy analysts, international and domestic lawyers, judges, civil servants, experts. Importantly, it will also improve their capacity to assess international affairs as citizens.

In terms of content, the course will expose students to the relevant literature and debates on international relations and law to provide context that enables the students to discuss core questions on the topic. Accordingly, the course is divided into two parts.

1) The first part introduces the students to theories of the Legalization of International Relations, concepts and methods for studying and understanding the legalization and judicialization of international affairs (sections 1 and 2). These sessions provide the students with the analytical and methodological tools to follow and develop discussions on international law in the framework of a broader international affairs context.

2) The second part of the course reviews the main questions and topics addressed by the literature in International Relations, International Law and the legalization of International Relations (sections 3 to 12). The study of the syllabus’ topics is done by applying the analytical concepts and research tools introduced in the first block of sessions.

Preliminary programme: each general section will consist on several sessions where these topics will be discussed. Sessions will also allocate time for exercises, debates and student presentations:

1. Introduction
This first section will introduce the course, clarify to the students how the course will be structured, and explain the examination format. In the second part of the introduction, the intersection between International Relations and International Law will be presented and discussed with the students. During the session, students will be asked about their motivations and professional interests in order to identify topics of interest for their final individual written assignments.

2. The Legalization of International Relations
This session will attend to the concept of Legalization of International Relations and its relevance for explaining how international law shapes domestic legal and political systems. It will theorize and discuss the different levels and types of legalization present in the literature (e.g. International agreements, International Organizations, International Courts), and its expected impact or influence on multi-level and domestic legal, social and political systems.

3. Compliance with international treaties and obligations
States delegate authority to international organizations, courts and sign treaties to make more credible their commitment with international rules, to remove certain issues from the political agenda or process, to balance powers between states, etc. Nevertheless, the evidence demonstrates how States still deviate from their international legal commitments. This section will clarify why States obey international law. In addition, it will discuss whether and how international courts do effectively increase compliance with International commitments adopted by States.

4. Domestic Political/Legal Cultures and International Law
The concept of legal culture has had an important place in major recent debates about the impact of international law. Legal culture might predetermine how national actors (lawyers, judges and lawmakers) accept, interpret and effectively apply international law. Building on the diversity and commonality of cultures and traditions (e.g. common law, civil law, Islamic, Nordic, among others), the seminar will analyze the importance of domestic legal cultures for the adoption and acceptance of International law.

5. International courts: Types, design and forms and patterns of support and resistance to their power.
The section will describe the different types of international courts, desing and power. Moreover, it will explore different forms and patterns of support and resistance to international courts’ power from international and domestic actors. It will be also discussed an analytical framework for explaining their variability.

6. International legal regimes and domestic courts
This section will examine how the interaction between domestic courts has been altered by the integration of international courts and legal regimes into judicial hierarchies. It will offer a conceptualization of the different forms of organization of judicial power and how they affect the dynamics that define inter-court relations.

7. Civil society and the mobilization of International Law
By their willingness to change the political status quo, civil society groups can mobilize legal institutions to pursue rights. This section offers a means to explain the role and judicial and non-judicial strategies of interest groups, NGOs, minorities, among others, in mobilizing regime changes through international law and under which conditions this mobilization is successful (or not).

8. Transnational networks/elites/entrepreneurs and the reception of International Law
In this section a review of literature of an emerging field related to transnational entrepreneurship is presented. Different types of networks/elites/entrepreneus (e.g. international and supranational legal associations, judicial networks, transnational political associations, etc.) and their structure will be introduced to the students. It will be explored how these transnational entrepreneurs pursue international legal strategies based on domestic conditions for influencing and shaping the integration of international law into their domestic legal regimes. Results indicate that the same factors that affect the strategy choice of MNCs also affect the transnational entrepreneur strategy selection.

9. International Law, Courts and Public Opinion
The seminar will address how international law and legal institutions build public support. An overview of the levels of acceptance towards legal institutions will be provided and will evaluate the sources of this support by assessing diverse explanations.

10. International transitional justice and its impact in political and legal regimes
This section provides an outline of the theories and themes in the study of transitional justice provided by International Law institutions (e.g. international peace-agreements, International Courts’ rulings). The transitions from authoritarian regimes to democracies both in the last decades and in current times have raised normative inquiries about how to address the abuses of former regimesand to ensure the future stability of the new political and legal regimes. Democracies in transition, in collaboration with the international community, have developed several mechanisms for dealing with crimes and repression perpetuated in the past: truth commissions, trials, amnesties, etc. In this section we will study the political, social, and legal factors for the use of these diverse transitional justice solutions and its impact in the development of the new political and legal regimes.

11. The Legalization of Economic governance
The increasing relevance of international and transnational governance for the regulation of cross-border economic relations and crises has given rise to debates about its domestic legitimacy. This section provides an introduction to the current normative and empirical debates about the impact of this legalization by exploring the views and strategies of actors practically involved in transnational and national governance.

12. Final session: Wrap-up discussion and questions about the examination
In this session we will revisit the core questions of the course: Why is international law important for understanding international relations? What is legalization? How can we operationalize it? Under what conditions could international law limit the behavior of international and domestic actors and their interactions? How does it affect the development of national domestic legal systems?