Why the State?
King's College London Law School Research Paper No. 2014-38
24 Pages Posted: 10 Oct 2014 Last revised: 12 Dec 2014
Date Written: October 12, 2013
Abstract
The paper provides a broadly sketched argument about the importance of state-law and its limits, and the way current developments in international relations and international law tend to transform it without displacing its key position among legal systems in general. It argues that state law is (at least until present time) the most comprehensive law-based social organization within its domain. A standing which is manifested by acknowledged legitimacy by those subject to it (or many of them) and sovereignty, namely independence or external bodies. The paper argues that globalisation (broadly conceived) and attending developments in international greatly reduce the sovereignty of states, and transform its legitimate authority within its domain. None of this heralds the elimination of the state, but it does affect the character of states, and poses theories of law with new challenges, including the need to take more seriously legal systems that are not systems of state-law.
Keywords: state-law, international law, sovereignty, legitimacy, practice based rules, the most comprehensive law based social organisation
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