Abstract
As a topic of increasing concern in the academics of international law, the rule of constitution in international relations encompasses various aspects.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
As early as 1926, Verdrose proposed the idea of constitutionalization of international law. A. Verdross, Die Verfassung der Völkerrechtsgemeinschaft (1926), p. v.
- 2.
The issues of the constitution and the rule of constitution have been discussed at the level of the European Community and the European Union for a long time. Related analysis, see: Basil Karp, “The Draft Constitution for a European Political Community”, 8 International Organization (1954) 181–202; Eric Stein, Gerhard Casper, John W. Bridge, Stefan A. Riesenfeld, Pieter VerLoren van Themaat, and Ami Barav, “The Emerging European Constitution”, 72 Proceedings of the Annual Meeting (American Society of International Law) (1978) 166–197; Trevor C. Hartley, “Federalism, Courts and Legal Systems: The Emerging Constitution of the European Community”, 34 American Journal of Comparative Law (1986) 229–247; For recent research, see: Ben Crum, Learning from the EU Constitutional Treaty: Democratic Constitutionalization beyond the Nation-State (Routledge, 2013); Berthold Rittbergerand Frank Schimmelfennig (eds.), The Constitutionalization of the European Union, Routledge, 2007.
- 3.
According to the data compiled by the author, about the issue of constitutionalization of international law, German scholars have concerned relatively early. In 1978, the two authors of C. Tomuschat, R. Schmidt discussed the constitutional issues in the international relations network. (Der Verfassungsstaatim Geflecht der internationalen Beziehungen, Walter de Gruyter); Some literature discusses the issue of the connection between international law and the Constitution on specific issues, such as the interaction between international law and the Constitution when interpreting treaties. Wechselwirkungenzwischen Völkerrecht und Verfassungbei der Auslegungvölkerrechtlicher Verträge, 18. Tagung in Salzburg vom 1–4 April 1981; As well as discusses political and social human rights, democratic constitutionalism, and international law that has conflicts between East and West, O Luchterhandt, Politische und soziale Menschenrechte, demokratischer Verfassungsstaat und Völkerrechtim Ost-West-Gegensatz, Kehl/Straßburg: Menschenrechte und Demokratie, 1981. After the 21st century, there was an increase in the literature directly discussed in this area by German, for example,
Stefan Kadelbach and Thomas Kleinlein, Überstaatliches Verfassungsrecht. Zur Konstitutionalisierungim Völkerrecht (Super-state Constitution: Constitutionalization of International Law), Archiv des Völkerrechts, 44. Bd., No. 3 (September 2006), pp. 235–266; T. Kleinlein, Konstitutionalisierung im Völkerrecht: Konstruktion und Elementeeineridealistischen Völkerrechtslehre (The Constitutionalization of International Law: The Structure and Factors of International Law Jurisprudence Idealism), Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, 2012; Thomas Kleinlein, Konstitutionalisierung im Völkerrecht (The constitutionalization of international law), Volume 231 of the series Beiträge zum ausländischen öffentlichen Recht und Völkerrecht (Foreign Public Law and International Law Collection), 1 November 2011, pp. 1–97.
- 4.
The domestic research, the earliest and at most is the analysis of the constitutional nature of the WTO, and afterwards has been expanded. In a period of time, the study of constitutionalization from the WTO to international economic law and to the entire international law has become a path for domestic scholars to study international law. For related Chinese publications, see E.-U. Petersman, Constitutional Functions and Constitutional Issues of International Economic Law, translated by He Zhipeng, Sun Lu, and Wang Yanzhi, (Higher Education Press, 2004); SunLu, “WTO Rules: A Global Constitution in the International Economic Field: A Preliminary Study of the Legal Nature of the WTO”, Legal Institutes and Social Development, of 2002(6); E.-U. Petersman, “The Constitutional Function of International Economic Law”, Contemporary Law Review, 2004(4); Wang Yanzhi, “Constitutional Approaches to International Economic Law”, Contemporary Law Review, 2004(4); Cai Congyan, “Studies on the Issues of Constitutionalism in the Context of International Law: Constitutionalist Implications of WTO”, Law and Business Research, 2006(2); Chen Xifeng, “The Constitutionalist Theory of WTO Rights: A Criticism from the Perspective of Economic Constitution”, Journal of International Economic Law (2008), Peking University Press, 1998; Chen An, “On the Strategic Positioning of China in Establishing a New International Economic Order - Concurrent Comment on the ‘New Liberal Economic Order’ Theory, the ‘WTO Constitutional Order’ Theory, and the ‘Economic Nationalism Disturbing the Order of Globalization’ Theory”, Modern Jurisprudence, 2009(2); Xu Chongli, “The Post-war ‘International Constitutional Order’ Myth—Commentary on ‘After the Victory of the War: System, Strategic Constraints and Reconstruction of Post-war Order’”, Xiamen University Law Review (2010); Wang Xiumei, “The rise of international constitutional thoughts and the trend of constitutionalization of international law”, The Science of Law (Journal of Northwest University of Political Science and Law), 2011(2); Zuo Haicong and Fan Xiaoying: “Constitutionalization of WTO: From ‘Theory of Judicial Constitution’ to ‘Theory of Trade Democracy’”, Contemporary Law Review, 2013(6).
- 5.
What needs to be explained is that this article makes an equivalent understanding of “the rule of constitution in international relations”, “constitutionalization of international relations”, and “constitutionalization of international law”. Just because the term “constitutional governance” may cause unhelpful questions and arguments, this article adopts the concept of “the rule of the constitution”. For the dilemma of the constitutional concept after 2013 in Chinese academia, see Lin Laifan, Constitutional Lecture Notes (2nd ed., Law Press, 2015), p. 43.
- 6.
The constitutionalization of international relations is the normative level of global governance. The Liberalism, Constructivism, and the British School of international relations all contribute to this. Andrew Hurrell, On Global Order: Power, Values, and the Constitution of International Society (Oxford University Press, 2008).
- 7.
Hans Kelsen, Principles of International Law (2nd ed., revised and edited by Robert W. Tucker, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1966), pp. 556–565.
- 8.
H. L. A. Hart, The Concept of Law (2nd ed., with a postscript edited by Penelope A. Bulloch and Joseph Raz, Oxford University Press, 1997), pp. 79–99.
- 9.
John S. Gibson, International Organizations, Constitutional Law, and Human Rights (Praeger Publishers, 1991), pp. ix–xi; John H. Jackson, “Constitutional Treaties: Institutional Necessity and Challenge to International Law Fundamentals”, in Marise Cremona, Peter Hilpold, Nikos Lavranos, Stefan Staiger Schneide, and Andreas R. Ziegler (eds.), Reflections on the Constitutionalisation of International Economic Law: Liber Amicorum for Ernst-Ulrich Petersmann, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2014, pp. 193–200.
- 10.
Bardo Fassbender, “The United Nations Charter as constitution of the international community”, 36 Columbia Journal of Transnational Law (1998) 529–619; Bardo Fassbender, U.N. Security Council Reform and the Right of Veto: A Constitutional Perspective, Springer, 1998; Bardo Fassbender, The United Nations Charter as the Constitution of the International Community (Brill, 2009).
- 11.
Jean L. Cohen, “Sovereignty in the Context of Globalization: A constitutional Pluralist Perspective”, in Samantha Besson and John Tasioulas, The philosophy of International Law (Oxford University Press, 2010), pp. 268–272.
- 12.
John S. Gibson, International Organizations, Constitutional Law, and Human Rights (Praeger Publishers, 1991), pp. ix–xi.
- 13.
Francisco Orrego Vicuña, International Dispute Settlement in an Evolving Global Society: Constitutionalization, Accessibility, Privatization (Cambridge University Press, 2004); Jeffrey L. Dunoff and Joel P. Trachtman (eds.), Ruling the World?: Constitutionalism, International Law, and Global Governance (Cambridge University Press, 2009); Jan Klabbers, Anne Peters, and Beir Ulfstein (eds.) The Constitutionalization of International Law (Oxford University Press, 2009).
- 14.
James Crawford, Chance, Order, Change: The Course of International Law (Hague Academy of International Law, 2014), p. 441.
- 15.
In modern society, regardless of the type of country, its constitution has a part that protects human rights. See the “Constitution” writing group, Constitution (Higher Education Press and People’s Publishing House, 2011), pp. 55–57, 61–62; Japanese scholar Abe Nobuyuki’s Constitution even discusses the various ministries of human rights in more than half of the space, See Abe Shinobu’s original works, Takahashi Kazuyuki supplemented, Constitution (3rd ed., Lin Laifan, Ling Weici, and Long Xuanli translated, Peking University Press, 2006); The Black Law Dictionary defines the Constitution as “national or state’s basic or organizational law, that establishes government agencies, determines the scope of government sovereignty, and protects citizens’ personal rights and freedoms.” See Bryan A. Garner (ed. in chief), Black’s Law Dictionary (10th ed., Thomson Reuters, 2014), p. 376; Chinese jurisprudence writings understands constitutional governance as a mechanism to guarantee human rights and restrict state power. See: Xiayong (editor in chief) and Hu Shuijun (deputy editor), Jurisprudence Lectures: The Truth and Learning about Law (Peking University Press, 2010), p. 457; Zhang Qianfan, Constitutional Handouts (Peking University Press, 2011), p. 15. Similarly, some of the reference books also interpret constitutional governance as “defining the democratic facts that have been won in the form of a constitution in order to consolidate this kind of democratic fact and develop this kind of democratic fact.” Editorial Board of Peking University Law Encyclopedia: Beijing University Law Encyclopedia: Constitutional Law and Administrative Law (Peking University Press, 1999), p. 520; “A political form or political process according to the Constitution, focused around democratic politics, based on the rule of law, and aimed at the protection of human rights. China Encyclopedia: Calligraphy (Revised ed., China Encyclopedia Press, 2006), p. 547.
- 16.
Sungjoon Cho, The Social Foundations of World Trade: Norms, Community and Constitution (Cambridge University Press, 2014).
- 17.
Aristotle, The Athenian Constitution (Kessinger Publishing, 2010); Aristotle, Aristotle on the Athenian Constitution (Primary Source Edition, Frederic G. Kenyon (trans.), Nabu Press, 2013).
- 18.
Aristotle, The Athenian Constitution, The Eudemian Ethics, On Virtues And Vices (Loeb Classical Library, H. Rackham (trans.), William Heinemann Ltd., 1935), p. 8. It is worth mentioning that another “Athenian constitutional system” which was reported to be written by Xenophon (which academics generally consider to be false works), in the original Greek text is also θηναίων πολιτεία, which is consistent with the name of Aristotle’s writings.
- 19.
Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon (9th ed., with new supplement, Oxford University Press, 1996), p. 1484.
- 20.
The origin of the English “constitution” is the Latin “constitutio”. The meaning is arrangement, organization, and establishment. Stuart Berg Flexner (ed.), The Random House Dictionary of the English Language (2nd ed., Random House, 1987), p. 436.
- 21.
Anarchy is the basic assumption of international relations. See: John Baylis, Steve Smith, and Patricia Owens, The Globalization of World Politics: An Introduction to International Relations (5th ed., Oxford University Press, 2011), p. 36.
- 22.
Hans Morgenthau, Politics among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace (7th ed., edited by Kenneth Thompson and David Clinton, cGraw-Hill, 2005), pp. 152–156, 218–224.
- 23.
The British thinker Hobbes had long proposed the viewpoint that the relations between nations are in a natural state and it is hard to avoid the war. Realist international relations are mostly also pessimistic about it.
- 24.
The word “constitution” has already appeared in the language of the Chinese pre-Qin period. The noun is the meaning of “decree” and the verb is the meaning of “publishing”. In the article “The Imperial Gate” of China’s Tsinghua-Benjamin, there is the sentence “The king uses various rules. There is mostly constitutional governance. If the decrees are complied with, there can be harmony and accomplishments”; see Ancient Chinese Dictionary (2nd ed., Commercial Press, 2014), p. 1618; Words Source (3rd ed., Zhonghua Book Bureau, 2015), p. 1545. The base of the word “constitution” in English is “constitute” and its basic meaning is “organization and structure”. The source of the word is the “constitution” of Latin, and its meaning is “arrangement, organization and establishment”. Stuart Berg Flexner (ed.), The Random House Dictionary of the English Language (2nd ed., Random House, 1987), p. 436; P. G. W. Glare (ed. in chief), Oxford Latin Dictionary (2nd ed., Oxford University Press, 2012), p. 461.
- 25.
Liu Maolin, et al., Perfectation of China’s Constitutional Rights System: Reference to International Human Rights Convention (Peking University Press, 2013), p. 1.
- 26.
See: Mancur Olson, The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups (Harvard University Press, 1965), pp. 125–131.
- 27.
Hans Kelsen, Principles of International Law (2nd ed. revised and edited by Robert W. Tucker, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1966), pp. 19–20, 31.
- 28.
James Crawford, Chance, Order, Change: The Course of International Law (Hague Academy of International Law, 2014).
- 29.
Jiang Guoqing, “Precisely On the Development of International Law Implementation Mechanism and Procedural Law Institute”, Law Review, 2004(1).
- 30.
Yu Mincai, as Chief Editor: Specifically On International Law (CITIC Press, 2003), p. 164.
- 31.
Rao Geping (ed.), International Organizations and Development of Implementation Mechanisms of International Law (Peking University Press, 2013), Preface, p. 2.
- 32.
Cass suggested that the WTO cannot be considered as a constitutional system in the traditional sense, and that the constitutionalized WTO system may limit the freedom of members to determine the economic institutes and pursue their own interests and development. Deborah Z. Cass, The Constitutionalization of the World Trade Organization: Legitimacy, Democracy, and Community in the International Trading System (Oxford University Press, 2005).
- 33.
Louis Henkin, “Human Rights and State ‘Sovereignty’”, 25 Ga. J. Int’l & Comp. L (1996) 34; Louis Henkin, “That ‘S’ Word: Sovereignty, and Globalization, and Human Rights, et Cetera”, 68 Fordham L. Rev. (1999) 1; Louis Henkin, “The Mythology of Sovereignty”, American Society of International Law Newsletter, Mar. 1993; John H. Jackson, Sovereignty, the WTO, and Changing Fundamentals of International Law, Cambridge University Press, 2006, pp. 57–78.
- 34.
Yoram Barzel, A Theory of the State: Economic Rights, Legal Rights, and the Scope of the State (Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. 11.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Law Press China and Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
He, Z., Sun, L. (2020). Chinese Conception About the Rule of Constitution in International Relations. In: A Chinese Theory of International Law. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2882-8_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2882-8_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-15-2881-1
Online ISBN: 978-981-15-2882-8
eBook Packages: Law and CriminologyLaw and Criminology (R0)