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International Norms and Cycles of Change

International Norms and Cycles of Change

Author: Wayne Sandholtz; Wayne Sities
Publisher: Oxford University Press USA
ISBN: 9780195380088
Published In: December 2008
Format: Hardback , 432 pages
Jurisdiction: International ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only

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Explains how practices that were once permissible and even "normal" - like slavery, conquest, and wartime plundering - are now prohibited by international rules.
Demonstrates why a 'cycles' approach offers a comprehensive and illuminating way to study norm change.
Reveals the broad pattern of international rule change within both sovereignty rules and liberal rules.

International lawyers and international relations scholars recognize that international norms change over time. Practices that were once permissible and even "normal" - like slavery, conquest, and wartime plundering - are now prohibited by international rules. Yet though we acknowledge norm change, we are just beginning to understand how and why international rules develop in the ways that they do. Wayne Sandholtz and Kendall Stiles sketch the primary theoretical perspectives on international norm change, the "legalization" and "transnational activist" approaches, and argue that both are limited by their focus on international rules as outcomes. The authors then present their "cycle theory," in which norm change is continual, a product of the constant interplay among rules, behavior, and disputes. International Norms and Cycles of Change is the natural follow-on to Prohibiting Plunder, testing the cycle theory against ten empirical cases. The cases range from piracy and conquest, to terrorism, slavery, genocide, humanitarian intervention, and the right to democracy. The key finding is that, across long stretches of time and diverse substantive areas, norm change occurs via the cycle dynamic.

International Norms and Cycles of Change further advances the authors' theoretical approach by arguing that international norms have been shaped by two main currents: sovereignty rules and liberal rules. Sovereignty rules are the necessary norms for establishing an international society of sovereign states and deal with the rights, prerogatives, and duties of states. Liberal rules are norms that emerged out of the Enlightenment and enshrine the basic value, dignity, and inherent rights of each person. Sandholtz and Stiles include five cases of sovereignty rules and five of liberal rules in order to reveal the broad cyclic pattern of international change in these two categories of rules.

Chapter 1. Explaining International Norm Change
Part I: Sovereignty Rules
Chapter 2. Banning Piracy: The State Monopoly on Military Force
Chapter 3. The End of Conquest: Consolidating Sovereign Rights
Chapter 4. Protecting Cultural Treasures in Wartime
Chapter 5. Terrorism: Reinforcing States' Monopoly on Force
Chapter 6. Extraterritoriality: Expanding Exclusive Internal Jurisdiction
Part II: Liberal Rules
Chapter 7. Slavery: Liberal Norms and Human Rights
Chapter 8. Genocide
Chapter 9. Refugees and Asylum
Chapter 10. Humanitarian Intervention: Liberal Norms vs. Sovereignty Norms
Chapter 11. The Right to Democracy
Chapter 12. Conclusion

Wayne Sandholtz is Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Irvine and the author of Prohibiting Plunder: How Norms Change (OUP, 2007).

Kendall Stiles is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Brigham Young University and the author of Case Histories in International Politics, 3rd edition(Addison-Wesley-Longman, 2003).