Cutting off the Kind’s Head: Rethinking Authority in International Law

Abstract

The renewed attention to the concept of authority in the literature of international law and international relations has allowed to gain a better understanding of the phenomenon of authority in international affairs. But even recent works remain focused on ‘authority figures’ in the form of persons, offices and institutions. Building on an approach proposed by Kim Scheppele and Karol Soltan, this article frames authority as a matter of attractiveness in a choice situation, showing a way to go beyond the dominant actor-focused conception of authority. What it proposes, in particular, is to revisit the existing understanding of authority by shifting the focus from authority figures to authoritative resources. The practice of authority assertions and authority contestations in international law shows that rather than being ‘agent-centered’, claims and challenges to authority primarily turn around attributes that pass for ‘authoritative resources’ in the relevant contexts.