The Paris Agreement as a paradigm shift in international law: the view from empirical legal studies*

Abstract

Legal theorists have historically levied critiques of international law’s status as law or as a legal system, contrasting it with the paradigm of municipal legal systems. However, this jurisprudential position is not necessarily sound, and empirical research tends against a sharp distinction between the two modes of law. This article uses both jurisprudential and empirical lenses to analyse and contest critiques of international law’s status as a legal system. It focuses in particular on the emergent climate governance regime and the Paris Agreement as a potential gold standard for a consensus-driven international legal order. It argues that, far from being a poor imitation of a legal system, international law may actually represent the state of the art and act as an exemplar for municipal legal systems.