Abstract
This chapter reviews the outcome of a recent endeavour of a conference of Nordic international lawyers to identify and analyse ‘the Nordic approach to international law’. It focuses, in particular, on the role played by Scandinavian realism – the legal philosophical school of thought for which the Nordic region has presumably gained most international renown – in relation to two different aspects of a possible Nordic international law tradition. On one hand, there is the legal political dimension of shaping international law directly in treaties. On the other, there is the legal doctrinal dimension in national constitutional law having to do with the domestication of international law, particularly through the integration by national judiciaries of the case law of international courts and tribunals. The chapter shows that Scandinavian realism plays rather different roles in Nordic scholarship relating to these two dimensions: it is conspicuously absent in discussions about the direct shaping of international law, and it is mistakenly present in discussions about the apparently reluctant domestication of such law in the national judiciaries of the Nordic countries. Finally, based on the experiences of the 2015 conference, the chapter provides some methodological reflections on how future research projects on Nordic approaches to international law might be construed.
| Originalsprog | Engelsk |
|---|---|
| Titel | European International Law Traditions |
| Redaktører | Peter Hilpold |
| Udgivelsessted | Heidelberg et al. |
| Forlag | Springer |
| Status | Accepteret/In press - 2020 |