https://refubium.fu-berlin.de/handle/fub188/23873 2026-04-28T17:16:16Z 2026-04-28T17:16:16Z Krieger, Heike Liese, Andrea https://refubium.fu-berlin.de/handle/fub188/23949 2019-12-11T18:18:42Z 2019-01-01T00:00:00Z

A Metamorphosis of International Law? Krieger, Heike; Liese, Andrea The paper aims to lay out a framework for evaluating value shifts in the international legal order for the purposes of a forthcoming book. In view of current contestations it asks whether we are observing yet another period of norm change (Wandel) or even a more fundamental transformation of international law — a metamorphosis (Verwandlung). For this purpose it suggests to look into the mechanisms of how norms change from the perspective of legal and political science and also to approximate a reference point where change turns into metamorphosis. It submits that such a point may be reached where specific legally protected values are indeed changing (change of legal values) or where the very idea of protecting certain values through law is renounced (delegalizing of values). The paper discusses the benefits of such an interdisciplinary exchange and tries to identify differences and commonalities among both disciplinary perspectives.

2019-01-01T00:00:00Z Lorenzo, Johanna Aleria P. https://refubium.fu-berlin.de/handle/fub188/30809 2023-04-28T12:47:28Z 2021-01-01T00:00:00Z

A Multilateral Track for Sustainable Development Along the Belt and Road Lorenzo, Johanna Aleria P. The paper scrutinizes the purported synergies between the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by examining the normative framework of the Initiative. The examination focuses on whether and how the conduct of relevant actors is regulated, particularly with regard to the environmental and social impacts of the economic activities – bulk of which consists of infrastructure projects – along the Belt and Road. One problematic feature of the existing legal and regulatory framework is its fragmentation – the variability of applicable sustainability standards – due to the predominantly bilateral character of the pseudo-formal agreements between China and the BRI participating States. Using a narrow, outdated view of sovereignty, these agreements rely on the environmental and social standards of the host/borrowing State. Such reliance poses challenges to achieving sustainable development along the Belt and Road, given the weak or sometimes inexistent safeguards for the protection of people and the environment within the domestic legal and regulatory systems of many host/borrowing States. Recent reports of polluted or dried-up rivers, inhuman working conditions, and displacement of indigenous peoples or local communities in some BRI States are symptomatic of this broader problem. To remedy such problem, I argue for the multilateralization of the international lawmaking process along the Belt and Road. Given the transnational or cross-border character of the BRI and the interdependent, multi-dimensional (economic, environmental, social) impacts of many of its projects, its legal and regulatory framework needs to be informed by and aligned with the normative framework and standard-setting efforts concerning sustainable development at the multilateral level. The related international obligations of China and of the other BRI participating States on environmental and human rights protection and their commitments to sustainable development have to be taken into account when designing, approving, financing, and implementing infrastructure projects along the Belt and Road. I further posit that, consistent with the duty of international cooperation and assistance, China, as the main proponent of the Initiative and the party to the bilateral agreements with greater resources and capacity to implement reforms, should ensure that BRI infrastructure projects do not undermine the host/borrowing State’s ability to comply with its other obligations under international environmental law and international human rights law. Lastly, to bring the BRI in closer alignment with international sustainable development law, I suggest that the principles of integration and public participation, which also include transparency, have to be applied both at the project-level and during the negotiation phase for the memoranda of understanding and related financing agreements. The multi-dimensionality of sustainable development and the global holistic ambition of the Initiative call for a participatory and inclusive approach to decisionmaking and to the implementation of norms.

2021-01-01T00:00:00Z Kulaga, Julian https://refubium.fu-berlin.de/handle/fub188/25081 2019-12-11T18:18:44Z 2019-01-01T00:00:00Z

A renaissance of the doctrine of Rebus Sic Stantibus? Kulaga, Julian Once the “popular plaything of Realpolitiker” the doctrine of rebus sic stantibus post the 1969 VCLT is often described as an objective rule by which, on grounds of equity and justice, a fundamental change of circumstances may be invoked as a ground for termination. Yet recent practice from States such as Ecuador, Russia, Denmark and the United Kingdom suggests that it is returning with a new livery. They point to an understanding based on vital States’ interests––a view popular among scholars such as Erich Kaufmann at the beginning of the last century.

2019-01-01T00:00:00Z Aust, Helmut Philipp Rodiles, Alejandro https://refubium.fu-berlin.de/handle/fub188/32314 2023-04-28T12:47:53Z 2021-01-01T00:00:00Z

Cities and Local Governments: International Development from Below? Aust, Helmut Philipp; Rodiles, Alejandro Cities and local governments have become both important sites for international development as well as actors which aspire to shape the practice in this field. This paper retraces the emergence of cities and local governments as having this dual character, in order to provide the ground for a more forward-looking deliberation on some of the emerging themes on the role of cities in and for international law and development today. We see in particular a friction between two seemingly competing and broader understandings of global development, in both of which cities play a prominent role: the SDGs as adopted in 2015, and China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The SDGs are the most important multilateral articulation of ideas of development today. To this extent, they are considerably shaped by the long shadow of the post-Cold War era and the shifting priorities of influential actors like the United States, the European Union, but also increasingly vocal states from the ‘Global South’. The BRI follows a different idea of international development, built around the notions of non-interference and ‘win-win cooperation.’ What unites these two blueprints for global development is that international law, as traditionally understood, does not seem to take center stage. Or rather, we wish to expound, it may be a new type of international law which emerges from these global constellations of international development which comes not only, but also from below.

2021-01-01T00:00:00Z