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Intertwinement of Legal Spaces in the Transnational Legal Sphere

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2017

DANA BURCHARDT
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Abstract

This article analyzes the interactions between norms formally stemming from different orders and regimes so as to demonstrate how and to what extent the legal spaces composing the transnational legal sphere are intertwined. Furthermore, it addresses the consequences of the intertwinement and suggests a fresh approach to the traditional concept of legal orders: it stresses a norm-centered rather than system-centered understanding of the transnational legal sphere. It argues for a norm-based strategy in order to understand the phenomenon of intertwinement, analytically deducing the relationship of the legal orders from the relationship of the legal norms.

Keywords

concept of legal ordersconflict of normshybrid normsinteractions of legal normslegal space
Type
INTERNATIONAL LEGAL THEORY
Information
Leiden Journal of International Law , Volume 30 , Issue 2 , June 2017 , pp. 305 - 326
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation of the Leiden Journal of International Law 2017 

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References

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22 Thus, the theoretical dimension of the concept of autonomy can be gradual as well. See regarding the different dimensions of autonomy Peters, supra note 5, at 31.

23 It may be stressed that it is the actual legal norm and not ‘merely’ the legal space which is characterized by hybridity. For an approach of a ‘hybridity of legal spaces’ see Berman, P. Schiff, ‘Global Legal Pluralism’, (2007) 80 Southern California Law Review 1155 Google Scholar.

24 Also, this analysis spells out the extent to which the process of implementation qualitatively goes further than a pure mechanism of transformation of international law into domestic norms as required by a dualist approach to the relationship between the domestic and the international legal order.

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27 See Art. 70 concerning offences against the administration of justice.

28 See in particular Art. 4 of the 1984 Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, 1465 UNTS 85.

29 See in particular Art. VII, para. 1 of the 1993 Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction, 1974 UNTS 45.

30 See in particular Art. 3 and Art. 8 para. 2 of the OECD 1997 Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions.

31 See in particular Arts. 4–6 of the 1999 UN Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, 2178 UNTS 197.

32 See in particular Arts. 15–42 of the 2003 UN Convention Against Corruption, 2349 UNTS 41 (although some of these provisions do not create immediate obligations of implementation).

33 For an approach that attributes a central role to general principles in the articulation of legal orders, regimes and norms in the international context see Jouannet, E. Tourme, ‘L'ambivalence des principes généraux face au caractère étrange et complexe de l'ordre juridique international’, in Vinaixa, R. Huesa and Wellens, K. (eds.), L'influence des sources sur l'unité et la fragmentation du droit international (2006), 115 Google Scholar at 134 et seq.

34 The terms ‘horizontal’ and ‘vertical’ are used for the sake of clarity, not as a statement in favour of a hierarchical relationship between international and domestic law.

35 For this comparative approach see Case Concerning Oil Platforms (Islamic Republic of Iran v. United States of America), Judgment of 6 November 2003, [2003] ICJ Rep. 161, and 324 (Judge Simma, Separate Opinion) at para. 66.

36 For an overview regarding this mechanism see A. Nollkaemper, National Courts and the International Rule of Law (2011), 139 et seq; Betlem, G. and Nollkaemper, A., ‘Giving effect to public international law and European Community law before domestic courts – A comparative analysis of the practice of consistent interpretation’, (2003) 14 EJIL 569 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; see also Betlem, G., ‘The doctrine of consistent interpretation – managing legal uncertainty’, (2002) 22 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 397 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

37 In the EU law context, the concept of consistent interpretation is not only directed from the domestic legal orders towards supranational law but also reciprocally from the supranational legal order towards domestic – constitutional – law. See A. Peters, Elemente einer Theorie der Verfassung Europas (2001), 289 et seq.

38 For a comparable observation concerning the EU law context see Raducu and Levrat, supra note 1, at 118.

39 For an approach that considers cross-regime interpretation as a systemic element in the international legal sphere see Matz-Lück, N., ‘Norm Interpretation across International Regimes: Competences and Legitimacy’, in Young, M.A. (ed.), Regime Interaction in International Law – Facing Fragmentation (2012), 201 Google Scholar at 211 et seq.

40 Stichting Mothers of Srebrenica and Others v. the Netherlands (dec.), no. 65542/12, § 139, ECHR 2013.

41 Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Request for advisory opinion), Advisory Opinion of 9 July 2004, [2004] ICJ Rep. 136, para. 104 et seq; The Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, Advisory Opinion of 8 July 1996, [1996] ICJ Rep. 226, para. 25.

42 For an analysis of this provision see McLachlan, C., ‘The Principle of Systemic Integration and Article 31(3)(c) of the Vienna Convention’, (2005) 54 International and Comparative Law Quarterly 279 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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44 See, e.g., Casolari, F., ‘Giving indirect effect to international law within the EU legal order: the doctrine of consistent interpretation’, in Cannizzaro, E. et al. (eds.), International law as law of the European Union (2012), 269 Google Scholar.

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50 For regime-related examples see the work of international organizations charged to harmonize international commercial and trade law standards that recommend adoption of model laws, which often reflect best practice in domestic jurisdictions. See, e.g., the work of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) and the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT).

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59 J. Raz, Concept of A Legal System (1970), 190.

60 H.L.A. Hart, The Concept of Law (1965), 92, 97 et seq.

61 These criteria are addressed by the ‘identity problem’ according to Raz's understanding of legal systems, see Raz, supra note 59, at 1.

62 Certains intérêts allemands en Haute-Silésie polonaise – Fond, PCIJ, 25 May 1926, Series A, No. 7, at 19.

63 See D. Burchardt, Die Rangfrage im europäischen Normenverbund (2015), 199 et seq.

64 Unless assuming – what this article does not – a monist legal world on the one hand or a considerable quantity of explicit norms of transposition on the other which would ensure the legal existence of certain external norms within a legal order or regime.

65 Other than the concept of monism, the approach suggested in this article is not based on a fully integrated, normatively homogenous legal sphere. The graduated character of the approach may be stressed here again.

66 See supra at Section 2.

67 Case C-115/09, Bund für Umwelt- und Naturschutz v. Arnsberg (Trianel), [2011] ECR I-3673.

68 For such approaches see Besson, S., ‘How international is the European legal order?’, (2008) No Foundations 50, at 65Google Scholar; Kumm, M., ‘Rethinking Constitutional Authority: On the Structure and Limits of Constitutional Pluralism’, in Avbelj, M. and Komárek, J. (eds.), Constitutional Pluralism in the European Union and Beyond (2012), 39 at 55Google Scholar et seq.