Beyond Bilateralism: The New International Legal Order

Abstract

The traditional, bilateralist model no longer accurately describes modern international law, if it ever did. International law has undergone significant transformation, yet we have thus far lacked a theoretical underpinning through which to understand the new international legal order. The international community interest can provide this tool. Transcending the individual interests of states, it attaches instead to a shared system of values and common concerns, such as the protection of human dignity and the global environment. Fundamental changes to the international legal order-the increasingly cooperative and communitarian nature of international law-making; the objectivised legal consequences of international law-breaking; and the developing systemic framing of the international legal order-can all be explained and understood through the community interest. This is the new paradigm through which we can understand international law.