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Multilateralism in Crisis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 March 2019

Jutta Brunnée
Jutta Brunnée*
Affiliation:
Professor of Law and Metcalf Chair in Environmental Law, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto.
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Extract

Some twenty-five years ago, John Ruggie defined “multilateralism” in terms that remain apposite today. As an international lawyer, this definition prompts me to reflect on the connections between the international legal order and multilateralism. To be sure, international law has unilateral, bilateral, and multilateral features, for example in lawmaking or law enforcement. Similarly, it can be wielded to unilateral, bilateral, or multilateral ends. Indeed, it is precisely because it transcends ends and issue areas, that international law, by providing “generalized” principles of conduct and interaction, is an important component of multilateralism.

Type
Closing Plenary: The Future of Multilateralism
Information
Proceedings of the ASIL Annual Meeting , Volume 112 , 2018 , pp. 335 - 339
Copyright
Copyright © by The American Society of International Law 2019 

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References

1 Ruggie, John, Multilateralism: The Anatomy of an Institution, 46 Int'l Org. 562, 571 (1992)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 See Nollkaemper, André, Unilateralism/Multilateralism, in Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law 1682 (2011)Google Scholar.

3 See Jutta Brunnée, Völkerrechtskritik: Gestern und Heute (Critiques of International Law: Then and Now), 49 Rückblick nach 100 Jahren und Ausblick – Migrationsbewegungen, Berichte der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Völkerrecht 167 (2018) (49 Proceedings of the German Society of International Law 167 (2018)) (arguing that “value critiques” were consistently mounted against international law, whereas questioning of its existence as “law” was relatively rare, confined to periods of challenge by the Soviet Union, and by political theorists in Nazi Germany, notably Carl Schmitt).

4 See Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man (1992) (arguing that the end of the Cold War also brought an “end of history,” in the sense of a universalization of Western liberal democracy).

5 See Opening Statement and Global Update of Human Rights Concerns by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein at 38th Session of the Human Rights Council (June 18, 2018) (rejecting the notion that universal human rights were merely “picked from a Western imagination” and cautioning against “attack on the multilateral system and its rules, including most especially international human rights law”), at https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=23206&LangID=E.

6 See generally Ruggie, supra note 1, at 586–93.

7 But see Harlan G. Cohen, Multilateralism's Life Cycle, 112 AJIL 47–66 (2018) (arguing that a range of factors help explain multilateralism's current decline).

8 See Lizzie Dearden, Russia's Foreign Minister Calls for “Post-West World Order” in Speech to Global Leaders, Independent (Feb. 18, 2017), at http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russia-post-west-world-order-lavrov-munich-security-conference-nato-trump-putin-ukraine-syria-assad-a7587006.html.

9 Zheping Huang, Chinese President Xi JinPing Has Vowed to Lead the “New World Order,” Quartz (Feb. 22, 2017), at https://qz.com/916382/chinese-president-xi-jinping-has-vowed-to-lead-the-new-world-order.

10 The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, The Declaration of the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China on the Promotion of International Law (June 25, 2016), at http://www.mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/news/-/asset_publisher/cKNonkJE02Bw/content/id/2331698.

11 See Eric Posner, Liberal Internationalism and the Populist Backlash (University of Chicago, Public Law Working Paper No. 606, Jan. 14, 2017), available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2898357.

12 See, e.g., Robert F. Inglehart & Pippa Norris, Trump, Brexit, and the Rise of Populism: Economic Have-Nots and Cultural Backlash (HKS Working Paper No. RWP16-026, July 29, 2016), available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2818659; Inglehart, Robert F. & Norris, Pippa, Trump and the Populist Authoritarian Parties: The Silent Revolution in Reverse, 15 Persp. Pol. 443 (2017)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

13 See Hurrell, Andrew, Beyond the BRICS: Power, Pluralism, and the Future of Global Order, 32 Ethics & Int'l Aff. 89, 91 (2018)Google Scholar.

14 See H.R. McMaster & Gary D. Cohn, America First Doesn't Mean America Alone, Wall Street J. (May 30, 2017), at https://www.wsj.com/articles/america-first-doesnt-mean-america-alone-1496187426 (arguing that the world is “not a ‘global community’ but an arena where nations, nongovernmental actors and businesses engage and compete for advantage”).

15 Peter S. Goodman, Ian Austen & Elizabeth Malkin, Just the Fear of a Trade War Is Straining the Global Economy, N.Y. Times (June 16, 2018), at https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/16/business/tariffs-trade-war.html.

16 Michael D. Shear & Catherine Porter, Trump Refuses to Sign G-7 Statement and Calls Trudeau “Weak,” N.Y. Times (June 9, 2018), at https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/09/world/americas/donald-trump-g7-nafta.html.

17 Editorial, Trump Walks Away from the UN Human Rights Council — and Rewards the Oppressors, Wash. Post (June 20, 2018), at https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-walks-away-from-the-un-human-rights-council--and-rewards-the-oppressors/2018/06/20/5da75d12-74b4-11e8-9780-b1dd6a09b549_story.html?utm_term=.895b07799427.

18 Adam Vaughn, Ban Ki-moon: US Has Caused Serious Damage to Paris Climate Efforts, Guardian (Mar. 5, 2018), at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/05/ban-ki-moon-us-paris-climate-agreement-withdrawal.

19 See Madeleine Albright, Will We Stop Trump Before It's Too Late?, N.Y. Times (Apr. 6, 2018), at https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/06/opinion/sunday/trump-fascism-madeleine-albright.html; Jonathan Havercroft, Antje Wiener, Mattias Kumm & Jeffrey L. Dunoff, Editorial: Donald Trump as Global Constitutional Breaching Experiment, 7 Glob. Constitutionalism 1 (2018).

20 See Albright, supra note 19; Havercroft, Wiener, Kumm & Dunoff, supra note 19; Jutta Brunnée & Stephen J. Toope, Whither the Rule of Law?, [Toronto] Globe & Mail (Apr. 14, 2017), at https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/whither-the-rule-of-law/article33953502.

21 See Brunnée, supra note 3.

22 Josh Lowe, Who Is More Powerful? France Can Take Leadership Role as America Retreats, Say Organizers of New Forum, Newsweek (Aug. 2, 2017), at http://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-emmanuel-macron-french-power-645366.

23 James McAuley, France's Macron Takes Lead in Climate Change Battle, with the U.S. Absent, Wash. Post (Dec. 12, 2017), at https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/frances-macron-takes-lead-in-climate-change-battle-with-the-us-absent/2017/12/12/2da019aa-de88-11e7-b2e9-8c636f076c76_story.html?utm_term=.92a4dc5d170c.

24 Michael D. Shear & Catherine Porter, Trump Refuses to Sign G-7 Statement and Calls Trudeau “Weak,” N.Y. Times (June 9, 2018), at https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/09/world/americas/donald-trump-g7-nafta.html.

25 Germany – Federal Foreign Office, Speech by Foreign Minister Heiko Maas: Courage to Stand Up for Europe – #EuropeUnited (June 13, 2018), available at https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/en/newsroom/news/maas-europeunited/2106528.

26 Government of Canada, Address by Minister Freeland When Receiving Foreign Policy's Diplomat of the Year Award (June 13, 2018), available at https://www.canada.ca/en/global-affairs/news/2018/06/address-by-minister-freeland-when-receiving-foreign-policys-diplomat-of-the-year-award.html.

27 Yasuaki Onuma, International Law in a Transcivilizational World (2017); Anthea Roberts, Is International Law International? (2017); Lauri Mälksoo, Russian Approaches to International Law (2015).