Solidarity between States in the Global Legal Space

Abstract

Since the creation of the United Nations and the end of World War II, the importance of solidarity has been growing constantly. The use of this term in treaties, conventions, resolutions, recommendations, declarations and other kinds of international documents is ever-increasing. But what does solidarity exactly mean in international law? Is it an idea, a value or a principle? Or is it all of these? There are no conclusive answers to these questions, because solidarity can often wear more coats and operate both as a value and as a principle. Solidarity shares the features of the global legal space, which is made of thousands of – often inter-connected – regulatory regimes.

To address these issues, this article will first provide some historical and theoretical remarks on the idea of solidarity and its multiple meanings. Thereafter, it will focus on the solidarity both as a value, in its constitutional dimension, and as a principle, in its administrative dimension. It will then examine the ambiguous relationship between solidarity and sovereignty. Finally, the key role of solidarity in the global legal space will be outlined: if fraternité helped French legal scholars to build domestic administrative law to also be a machine that addresses collective interests, solidarity appears to be capable of strengthening the normative claims of many of the legal projects ideated to tame global governance.

Keywords: solidarity, international law, global governance, responsibility to protect