Legal obligation in the global context: some remarks on the boundaries and allegiances among persons beyond the state

Pavlakos, G. (2012) Legal obligation in the global context: some remarks on the boundaries and allegiances among persons beyond the state. Working Paper. European University Institute (EUI) / Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (RSCAS).

Abstract

The intensity of Globalisation has put under pressure the link between legal obligation and state institutions, which up to recently had been assumed to enjoy the status of an analytic truth. That said, there exists little agreement on how and to what extent the link has been broken, what can repair it, or whether reparation is possible, let alone desirable. Moving beyond the two dominant theories of political obligation, the political and the instrumental, the paper attempts to make a fresh start for reconstructing the content and scope of legal obligation in the global context. In doing so, it introduces a constraint which rests on a qualified notion of coercion, one that is capable of illustrating the grounding of obligations on the moral status of persons (Normative Conception of Coercion). Contrary to the political view it will be argued that state institutions are not necessarily included in the grounding of legal obligation. Contrary to instrumentalism, not all contexts of institutional interaction will be deemed otiose.

• Item Type: Research Reports or Papers (Working Paper)
• Additional Information: EUI Working Papers, RSCAS 2012/16
• Status: Published
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Pavlakos, Professor George
• Authors: Pavlakos, G.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Law
• Publisher: European University Institute (EUI) / Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (RSCAS)