A Farewell to Fragmentation: Reassertion and Convergence in International Law

Description

Fragmentation has been much discussed as a threat to international law as a legal system. This book contends that the fragmentation of international law is far exceeded by its convergence, as international bodies find ways to account for each other and the interactions of emerging sub-fields. Reasserting its role as the 'principal judicial organ of the United Nations', the International Court of Justice has ensured that the centre of international law can and does hold. This process has strengthened a trend towards the reunification of international law. In order to explore this process, this book looks at fragmentation and convergence from the point of view of the centre of the International Court and of the position of other courts and tribunals. Featuring contributions by leading international lawyers from a range of backgrounds, this volume proposes both a new take and the last word on the fragmentation debate in international law.

Mads Andenas is a Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Oslo, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Arbitrary Detention, and the Chair of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which reports to the UN Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly. He has held senior academic appointments in the United Kingdom, including as Director of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, London and Director of the Centre of European Law at King's College London. Eirik Bjorge is Shaw Foundation Junior Research Fellow at Jesus College, University of Oxford. Eirik has taught at Oxford and Sciences Po, Paris. He is the author of The Evolutionary Interpretation of Treaties (2014) and a co-editor of Landmark Cases in Public International Law (with Cameron Miles, 2017).

'The book provides what is clearly missing in the fragmentation debate, that is, empirical evidence from the practice of courts and tribunals demonstrating the processes through which fragmentation and convergence occur. [The book] also succeeds in doing something that few multi-contributor volumes in law are able to achieve, that is, to construct a clear argument that runs throughout the entire book. The editors advanced a hypothesis and structured the chapters in such a way so as to allow for this argument to be developed through the course of the volume. Each chapter can be read as a standalone contribution, yet the book should be read as a monograph in order to view the development of the argument.' Jed Odermatt, International Journal of Constitutional Law 'The potential audience of A Farewell to Fragmentation should include anyone, including academics, students, and practitioners, who is interested in the debate(s) over fragmentation in international law. Since its overall argument is that fragmentation is now outweighed by its opposite, it may also interest those who are tired of hearing about fragmentation.' Sondre Torp Helmersen, Leiden Journal of International Law