Recueil Des Cours, Collected Courses, Tome 416
Description:... Solidarity and Community Interests: Driving Forces for the Interpretation and Development of International Law; General Course on Public International Law by Rüdiger Wolfrum.
References to legal regimes serving the interests of the community of States have become quite frequent, less so references to regimes guided by the principle of solidarity. The General Course undertook to analyze the relevant regimes. This analysis established contours on what are the essential features of community interests and the principle of solidarity. It identified three types of community interests.
In a further step, the Course assessed as to whether the traditional international norm- making as well as its implementation system meet the challenges resulting from the dedication to community interests or to the principle of solidarity. It concludes that these regimes have had a significant impact upon the international normative order. International regimes are developed in stages; non-legally binding norms initiate and guide on a principled level such norm making. Non-legally binding norms occasionally substitute legal regimes. New actors besides States and international organizations influence the development international norms and new fora have emerged initiating norms or develop them progressively. These normative developments have had an influence on the relevant international implementation/enforcement systems. The Course identifies a clear shift from confrontational means of enforcement to non-confrontational ones.
Finally, the Course identified that the existing international dispute settlement system is only beginning to meet the challenges posed by community oriented regimes. The possibility to bring a case before an international court or tribunal is still dominated by the dogma that such action can only be brought by States, which can claim the violation of their individual interests. The International Court of Justice eroded this dogma in its Order of January 2020 concerning the dispute between The Gambia and Myanmar.
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