Introduction to Part III

Abstract

In addition to the traditional main sources of public international law, Part III situates two essential features of the concept of public international law, the concept of international institution and the concept of international community, within the dichotomy formed by the framework of obligation and the framework of authorization. These features follow the common distinction between an ‘organized’ international community and an ‘unorganized’ international community. The concept of international institution may be said to have emerged out of an unorganized international community. At the same time, this unorganized international community remains important and complementary because of the (inherent?) ‘deficiencies’ of international institutions. At the same time, when analyzed from the perspective of the mutual exclusivity of the framework of obligation and the framework of authorization, both may be seen as incoherent. It will be argued that both the concept of international institution and the concept of international community may coherently be resituated within the reformulated framework derived from the incoherence of the mutual exclusivity of the framework of obligation and the framework of authorization. Resituated within the reformulated framework, both the concept of international institution and the concept of international community, transformed, for terminological purposes, into the concept of international society, may be seen as forming an integral part of the function of public international law understood as the constituting of (the common good of) international society. Within the reformulated framework, the constituting of international society by the members of international society takes place on the basis of their dilemma situation of having a power, but not a freedom to act. From that starting point, the constituting of international society takes the form of rules of public international law which, at the same time, constitute the members of international society as members of international society. The constituting of international society may take the form of rules of conventional international law and, in so far as it assumes a more permanent character, the form of international institutions. Organs of international institutions may be seen as managing the common good of international society entrusted to them. The question whether their management of the common good of international society conforms to the constituting of international society as envisaged by the members of international society is itself a question of the constituting of international society, reflecting the dialectical relationship between international institutions and international society. Rather than seeing the concept of international institution and the concept of international community as reciprocal remedies for deficiencies, the reformulated framework situates international institutions and international society as complementary elements of the constituting of international society.