IILJ Working Paper 2006/12

Contemporary International Rulemaking and the Public Character of International Law

Jean d’Aspremont

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There is a growing consensus in international legal scholarship on the idea that International Law is also public because it can address matters that concern the International Society as a whole. Such an assertion requires that the extent to which international rulemaking is directed at global interest be correctly appraised. The classical studies that tackled that question and that are widely referred to in the literature fail to provide an adequate account of the role of global interests in international lawmaking. This paper is an attempt to offset that deficiency with a fresh analysis of the various interests driving contemporary international rulemaking processes with the view of providing a better understanding of this new underpinning for the public character of International Law.