International Law And Changing Perceptions Of Security PDF Download

The concept of security has evolved to reflect contemporary public concerns in a wide range of areas and geographical contexts. The modern discourse of security continues to expand as subjective perceptions of reality change or social conditions and practices evolve. However, the dynamic nature of the political construct of security has the potential to undermine the norms and rules of international law. The rigidity of legal instruments as the means of regulating international relations militates against their flexible adaptation in response to the conceptual evolution of security. The twisted relationship between security and law challenges the fundamental premise of international law that it is capable of providing objective, justifiable solutions to normative problems through the application of legal rules, independent of political considerations and natural morality. This book explores how the concept of security interacts with the rigid framework of international law to test the hypothesis that the system of public order among states is regulated under the rule of law. If international law is meant to govern international relations as a system of law, the rule of law demands that the development and application of legal instruments does not contravene certain fundamental, universal principles as the basis for their legal validity. The quest for the rule of law in international relations must begin by identifying such principles, through a systematic analysis of the practice of international adjudication, as general criteria for delineating the legally valid recourse to the concept of security within the framework of international law.