At the end of the Cold War, international law scholars engaged in a furious debate over whether principles of democratic legitimacy had entered international law. Those debates, while still ongoing, have not been comprehensively revisited in almost twenty years. Together with an original introduction, the recently published volume by Gregory H. Fox und Brad R. Roth (editors) collects the leading scholarship of the past two decades on some of the most pertinent questions linked to the overall debate. The volume is published as Issue No. 24 of Edward Elgar’s renowned “International Law Series“ and includes three contributions by members of the Institute of International Law and International Relations at the University of Graz: In an article originally published in 2015, Erika de Wet addresses the potential consequences of the ideal of democratic legitimacy on the public international law institute of recognition of governments. Christian Pippan, for his part, deals – in an article first published in 2012 – with the general issue of the current place of a (purported) democratic legal entitlement in international law. A further contribution by Christian Pippan, originally published in 2015 (together with Kalkidan N. Obse), addresses the attempts at establishing a collective mechanism for the protection of democracy and constitutional order within the regional framework of the African Union.
For more information about the volume, please consult Edward Elgar’s official website: https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/democracy-and-international-law-9781788114745.html