The Missing Persons of International Law Scholarship: A Roadmap for Future Research

Tamar Megiddo, The Missing Persons of International Law Scholarship: A Roadmap for Future Research, in: International Law as Behavior (Harlan G. Cohen & Timothy Meyer, eds. Cambridge University Press) (2018, Forthcoming)

35 Pages Posted: 27 Apr 2018

See all articles by Tamar Megiddo

Tamar Megiddo

Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Date Written: August 1, 2017

Abstract

Interdisciplinary research of international law has been on the rise in the past two and half decades. Scholars have adopted widely varying disciplines, methodologies and theoretical frameworks to investigate international legal behavior. This chapter argues, however, that a lion’s share of the literature on international legal behavior has understated the role of individual people in international law.

Although probably any scholar working in the field of international law would agree that international law is made, implemented, changed or broken by people, this ontological insight has not found its way into influential paradigmatic views of international law. Consequently, it has not been adequately embedded in methodologies, theoretical accounts and research agendas.

The chapter offers a review of the scholarship, aiming to substantiate its critical claim while also pointing to some implications of the literature’s entrenched statism, and thus to benefits likely to arise from forsaking it. The review lays the ground for further work developing a new paradigm more attentive to individuals.

Keywords: International legal theory, Non-state actors, Effectiveness of international law, International legal methodology

Suggested Citation

Megiddo, Tamar, The Missing Persons of International Law Scholarship: A Roadmap for Future Research (August 1, 2017). Tamar Megiddo, The Missing Persons of International Law Scholarship: A Roadmap for Future Research, in: International Law as Behavior (Harlan G. Cohen & Timothy Meyer, eds. Cambridge University Press) (2018, Forthcoming), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3158565

Tamar Megiddo (Contact Author)

Hebrew University of Jerusalem ( email )

Jerusalem
Israel

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