The Identification of Community Interest Norms before the International Court of Justice
New Insights through International Law’s “Human Dimension”
International Law Breakfast Briefing with PhD student Johanna Ritter, Radboud University Nijmegen.
The international legal order requires states to abide by certain norms that protect the interests of the international community as a whole, even when these norms conflict with a state’s individual self-interest. To this end, the International Law Commission (ILC) has provided a non-exhaustive list of non-derogable norms (jus cogens), such as the prohibitions on genocide, slavery, and torture. At the same time, references to obligations owed to the entire international community (erga omnes) are increasingly invoked by international legal actors in contexts such as environmental conservation and human rights. Despite the well-established status of community interest norms in international law, there remains a lack of clarity regarding how these norms come into existence.
Doctrinal legal scholarship typically grounds the identification of legal norms in state recognition but rarely interrogates the underlying process. This approach neglects the human dimension, which is particularly central to the identification of community interest norms. While the international legal system governs relations between states, decisions are made by their human representatives. In fact, both the creation and interpretation of community interest norms are human endeavours and, consequently, depend on how these individuals perceive the world.
This breakfast briefing examines the legal framework for identifying community interest norms and its gaps. It will present preliminary ideas on how a cognitive-linguistic framework, emphasising the human dimension of these norms, can address these gaps. This will be illustrated through examples of the interplay between different legal actors before the International Court of Justice, the central forum for international legal discourse.
Bio
Johanna Ritter is a second-year PhD candidate at Radboud University Nijmegen (the Netherlands) and a visiting researcher at Lund University. Her research interests include general public international law, legal education, and critical legal studies.
About the series
The International Law Breakfast Briefings offer a regular opportunity for researchers, practitioners, and students with an interest in international law to meet, exchange views, and share research findings on current issues in the field.
Format: Each session features a presentation of approximately 20-25 minutes, followed by a discussion. Unless otherwise specified, both the presentation and discussion will be conducted in English. Coffee and croissants will be available for all registered participants attending in person.
Researchers – including PhD students – and practitioners working in the field of international law who are interested in presenting at one of our upcoming sessions in the fall series are warmly invited to contact cornelius.wiesener@jur.ku.dk or astrid.kjeldgaard-pedersen@jur.ku.dk.