The Power of Legitimacy Among Nations

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Oxford University Press, 1990 - Law - 303 pages
Although there is no international government, and no global police agency enforces the rules, nations obey international law. In this provocative study, Franck employs a broad range of historical, legal, sociological, anthropological, political, and philosophical modes of analysis to unravel the mystery of what makes states and people perceive rules as legitimate. Demonstrating that virtually all nations obey most rules nearly all of the time, Franck reveals that the more legitimate laws and institutions appear to be, the greater is their capacity for compliance. Distilling those factors which increase the perception of legitimacy, he shows how a community of rules can be fashioned from a system of sovereign states without creating a global leviathan.
 

Contents

Why a Quest for Legitimacy?
3
2 The Irrelevance of Law and NonLaw
27
A Matter of Degree
41
4 Determinacy
50
5 Determinacy and the Sophist RuleIdiot Rule Paradox
67
6 Redejining Determinacy
84
7 Symbolic Validation Ritual and Pedigree
91
8 True Cues and Symbolic Validation
111
9 Validation and Coherence
135
10 Coherence and Legitimacy
150
Legitimacy and Normative Hierarchy
183
12 Community and Legitimacy
195
Why Not Justice?
208
Notes
247
Index
291
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About the author (1990)

Thomas M. Franck is at New York University.

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