Aleksandr Kozelko (Independent) has posted International Law as the Law of an International Scene on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
This article argues that international law is best understood not through repeated comparison with domestic law, but as the law of an international scene: a distinctive normative environment marked by limited social integration, heterogeneous actors, distributed institutions, and thin but persistent practices of mutual recognition. The central claim is that international law should not be treated either as an incomplete copy of state law or as a mere extension of politics. It possesses obligations, procedures, interpretive practices, institutional forms, and modes of justificatory argument, yet it operates without a single «demos», a unified sovereign, or a dense common political culture comparable to that of the state. The article therefore shifts the analytical focus from the question whether international law is «really» law to the question of what kind of social form sustains its normative force. Methodologically, it distinguishes the object of analysis—the international scene—from the principal route of explanation—the figure of the actor. Through this distinction, the article shows how admission to the scene, mutual recognition, role allocation, status distribution, and identity transformation become visible as constitutive elements of international legality. It further argues that international actors are shaped by dual belonging: they are delegated by domestic political worlds while simultaneously operating within an external normative arena. This divided positionality helps explain both the stability and fragility of international law. By reconstructing international law as the law of a thin yet normative scene, the article offers a non-deficit account of its social reality and a new framework for general jurisprudence.
Recommended.
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