3 - Competing Conceptions of the International Rule of Law

Summary

Chapter 3 revisits explanations for contradictory US policy via the ideological typology to develop a model of competing conceptions of the international rule of law. Opposition to US legal policy has converged on forms of ‘legalism’, as a set of beliefs that law consists of non-instrumental rules and that the international legal system should be developed by analogy with municipal law. The four ideal types, as well as legalism, are applied to reinterpret the classic Anglo-American conception of the rule of law composed of three elements that, when translated to the global level, are concerned with: how to develop non-arbitrary global governance; how to define equality under IL defined; and how to determine the integrity of international judicial power. Each element of the rule of law has been interpreted in a distinctive form by the competing ideologies, thus establishing a structured contest over principles for designing and developing global legal institutions. The meaning of ‘coherence’ becomes that a legal policymaker’s interpretation of any one of the three elements is a reliable indicator of positions taken on remaining elements.