International Law:Norms, TANs & other important concepts you should know about

What are international norms?

✤ Norms: standards or behavior defined in terms of rights/obligations & are informal international institutions.

✤ Norms of fairness shape political appeals and policies in many countries.

3 Categories of Norms:

1. Constitutive

✤ Defines who is a legitimate or appropriate actor under what circumstances.

✤ for example, sovereignty is a constitutive norm.

✤ so is national self-determination

2. Procedural ✤ Define how decisions involving

multiple actors should get made.✤ Basically, procedural norms outline the

ways in which groups should operate.

For example, assigning roles to support an effect group process (i.e. facilitator, time keeper, scribe, process observer, etc.)

3. Regulative

✤ Govern the behavior of actors in their interactions with other actors.

✤ R2P: example norm of election monitoring.

✤ Nuclear taboo: is also regulative norm.

How are International Norms created?

✤ For a principle and/or idea to become institutionalized as a norm, the standard of behavior it specifies must be accepted as morally right and appropriate by a sufficiently large proportion of any given population.

✤ Some principles become norms simply by the force of their own inherent goodness.

✤ example: nuclear taboo

✤ Norms typically begin with individuals/groups who seek to advance a principled standard of behavior for states and other actors —> norms entrepreneurs

✤ Norms entrepreneurs typically form TANs: global civil society groups that are dedicated to particular political, economic and social causes.

Transnational Advocacy Networks or (TANs):

✤ Are sets of activists allied in the pursuit of a common normative objective including: human rights, the environment, economic/political justice, women’s rights, abortion, etc.

Within TANs, actors include:

✤ International/domestic NGOs, local social movements, foundations & other philanthropic organizations, the media, churches and other civil organizations.

What do TANs do?

✤ They promote norms to alter interests and change interactions at the individual/state levels.

✤ TANs change how actors conceive of their interests by promoting new moral values.

✤ Additionally, an important function includes encouragement and support for socially appropriate behaviors and helping to spread norms across national borders.

3 Stage Norms Life Cycle

✤ 1. Norms entrepreneurs actively work to convince a critical mass of other individuals in other states to embrace their beliefs.

✤ 2. Once a new frame has taken hold, a norms cascade occurs: conformity to the new norm can be established through coercion or socialization.

✤ 3. Norms are internalized or become so widely accepted that they acquire the taken-for-granted quality that makes conforming almost automatic.

Do Norms Matter?

Norms constrain states and other actors in two ways:

✤ 1. By redefining interests: shaping what actors believe is right/appropriate behavior under specific circumstances.

✤ 2. By changing their interactions: TANs play important role in enforcing norms by calling attention to violations of widely held beliefs— practice known as naming and shaming.

Boomerang ModelMost likely to be activated by NGO originating in nondemocratic regimes and directed at NGOs in more democratic states- where governments are more sensitive to social demands pressed by voters.Example: anti-apartheid movement in South Africa.

TANs as endorsers

✤ TANs enhance the prospects for cooperation between states; they can reduce uncertainty and improve the likelihood of cooperation by providing information to all the parties.

TANs as monitors

✤ By revealing information about compliance, TANs allow states to have greater confidence that current and future agreements will be honored.

States acquire information about compliance in 1 of 3 ways:

✤ 1. They can rely on the self-reports of others

✤ 2. States can monitor one another’s behavior directly

✤ Example: arms control agreement between U.S. and Soviet Union during Cold War

✤ 3. States can monitor indirectly by listening to the testimony of trustworthy third parties.

(International Law primarily constrains states in their relations to one another.)

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