Is the rule of law possible in geopolitics?

Is the rule of law possible in geopolitics?


Rozov N.S.,

Institute of Philosophy and Law, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia; Novosibirsk State Technical University, Novosibirsk, Russia, nrozov@gmail.com


elibrary_id: 72298 | ORCID: 0000-0003-2362-541X | RESEARCHER_ID: K-5447-2017

Article received: 2022.08.22. Accepted: 2022.11.03


DOI: 10.17976/jpps/2023.01.12
EDN: DFEQVE

Rubric: DIXI!

For citation:

Rozov N.S. Is the rule of law possible in geopolitics? – Polis. Political Studies. 2023. No. 1. https://doi.org/10.17976/jpps/2023.01.12. EDN: DFEQVE



Abstract

The author considers the type of future world order, which best corresponds to modern humanistic values and legal principles, as well as the main obstacles and possible ways to implement it. The article is deliberately structured as a political-philosophical and debatable one; there are no special empirical* substantiations and detailed theorizing in it. The article considers how the notorious “anarchy” of international relations can be restricted on consistent legal grounds, as is required by the acuteness and scale of contemporary conflicts. The main milestones for the promotion of law ideas in matters of war and peace with special attention to the contribution of Russian international lawyers of the second half of the nineteenth – early twentieth centuries are presented. The author shows why the current institutions (headed by the UN Security Council) fail to cope with the urgent tasks of war prevention, and reviews the main reform projects, most of which have not been implemented. The main thesis is that geopolitics (the sphere of war and peace, territorial disputes) should be regulated by a system of international courts under the aegis of the UN, the enforceability of whose verdicts can and should be ensured by a coalition of leading global and regional powers. In this case, diplomacy and military, coercive actions in the international arena will lose their current primacy in geopolitics. They will assume an auxiliary role in relation to the law, to the activities and verdicts of an authoritative court (including in the sphere of sanctions, reparations, force actions). The main obstacles to the establishment of such an order are considered, as well as the ways to overcome them and the stages of progress towards the establishment of the rule of law in global and regional geopolitics.

Keywords
geopolitics, rule of law, international law, international court, legal world order, UN Security Council, conflict resolution, humane orders.


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Content No. 1, 2023

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Concept Misformation in Comparative Politics (III)

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