A Command-Based Approach to the Possibility of Structuring ‎International Law

Abstract

A holistic view of classical international law presents an image of a collection of scattered consensual rules, where coordination as a cohesive and integrated whole is not necessarily observed among these rules. Such a collection cannot benefit from a normative order that includes a hierarchy of rules and guarantees fundamental rights. Nevertheless, later legal scholars have described international law as a "system" of law. This research, employing a descriptive method, seeks to validate this claim and demonstrates that, firstly, the prevalent objectivism in all components of international law, alongside the multitude of active and passive interest-driven actors in the international community, seemingly hinders the acceptance of a structural system; secondly, newer approaches inevitably embrace subjective values, resulting in a goal-oriented convergence within the international community. The outcome of this thesis and its antithesis is that international law is still evolving, and a normative reading utilizing existing capacities enhances its structuring.