Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T20:32:11.339Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Democratic Legitimacy between Port-au-Prince and Cairo: A Reply to Erika de Wet

Part of: Recognition of Governments and Customary International Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Jure Vidmar
Jure Vidmar*
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

In the 1990s, international legal scholarship was marked by democratic idealism and the belief that democracy had become the only legitimate political system. The more radical proposals even speculated about legality of pro-democratic intervention. Such re-conceptualizations of international law were met with determined criticism. However, even skeptical voices were willing to admit that democracy nevertheless did have some limited normative force in post-Cold War international law. While it would be an exaggeration to say that nondemocratic governments are illegitimate per se, a consensus started to emerge that international law prohibited at least a coup against a democratic government. In the absence of a workable definition of substantive democracy for international law purposes, a democratic government was understood as an authority which comes to power in an electoral process that is reasonably free and fair.

Type
Symposium: Recognition of Governments and Customary International Law
Information
AJIL Unbound , Volume 108 , 2014 , pp. 208 - 212
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 2014

References

1 Franck, Thomas M., The Emerging Right to Democratic Governance, 86 AJIL 46 (1992)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 Tesón, Fernando R., The Kantian Theory of International Law, 92 Colum. L. Rev. 53 (1992)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 Susan Marks, The Riddle of All Constitutions: International Law, Democracy, and A Critique of Ideology (2000); Brad R. Roth, Governmental Illegitimacy in International Law (1999).

4 d’Aspremont, Jean, The Rise and Fall of Democracy Governance in International Law: A Reply to Susan Marks, 22 Eur. J. Int’l Law 549 (2011)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 de Wet, Erika, From Free Town to Cairo via Kiev: The Unpredictable Road of Democratic Legitimacy in Governmental Recognition, 108 AJIL Unbound 201 (2015)Google Scholar.

6 SC Res. 940 (July 31, 1994).

7 SC Res. 1132 (Oct. 8, 1997).

8 GA Res. 2758 (XXVI) (Oct. 25, 1971).

9 SC Res. 1267 (Oct. 15, 1999); SC Res. 1333 (Dec. 19, 2000); SC Res. 1363 (July 30, 2001); SC Res. 1378 (Nov. 14, 2001).

10 SC Res. 1378 (Nov. 14, 2001).

11 SC Res. 1970 (Feb. 26, 2011); SC Res. 1973 (Mar. 17, 2011).

12 Henderson, Christian, II. International Measures for the Protection of Civilians in Libya and Cote d’Ivoire, 60 Int’l & Comp. L.Q. 767 (2011)Google Scholar.

13 Akande, Dapo, Recognition of Libyan National Transitional Council as Government of Libya, EJIL:Talk! (July 23, 2011)Google Scholar; Talmon, Stefan, Recognition of the Libyan National Transitional Council, 15 ASIL Insights (June 16, 2011)Google Scholar.

14 Eric Schmitt & David E. Sanger, As Goal Shifts in Libya, Time Constrains NATO, N.Y. Times (May 26, 2011).

15 Michael Doran, Pursue Regime Change in Syria, Brookings Institute (Jan. 23, 2014).

16 Vermeer, Zachary, Intervention with the Consent of a Deposed (but Legitimate) Government? Playing the Sierra Leone Card, EJIL:Talk! (Mar. 6, 2014)Google Scholar.

17 Falk, Richard, The Haiti Intervention: A Dangerous World Order Precedent for the United Nations, 36 Harv. Int’l L.J. 341 (1995)Google Scholar.