Dissertation: Normbegründungsprozesse in internationalen Organisationen

Normbegründungsprozesse in internationalen Organisationen

Entstehung von Völkerrechtsnormen am Beispiel der Entstehungsgeschichte der Bioethikkonvention des Europarates

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Schriften zur internationalen Politik, volume 43

Hamburg , 210 pages

ISBN 978-3-8300-7464-9 (print) |ISBN 978-3-339-07464-5 (eBook)

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In our interconnected international world it has become much more urgent to find ways and methods to agree on common norms which then can be transformed into legally binding forms at the national level.

This study examines the international procedures of norm-creation within international organizations, focusing on those strategic and communicative actions which try to bring about a consensus among nation-states and thus pave the way for the inclusion of their consensual decisions into the legal systems of these nation states at a later stage. I follow the process of the creation of the Bioethics Convention of the Council of Europe from ist inception through the signing of the framework conventions. The analysis of the Bioethics Convention sheds light on the complex interrelations among existential and ethical elements, technology assessments, the institutional and structural features of international organizations as well as the cognitive interest in the roles of political control and social participation in processes of international norm creation. This study concerns also the discourse processes involved in the creation of norms which occur in international organizations and institutions. The legal principles and standards defined in international treaties and conventions will sooner or later be transferred into national legal systems and norms. Citizens of the concerned nation states will usually notice that new legal norms have been created in this way – if at all – only when these norms have been transformed into national law. The international procedures for norm creation are based on Kant’s idea of the “world state” (Weltstaat), demanding that international conflicts be resolved by agreement on new norms instead of the use of force. Everlasting peace would only emerge in an international order ruled by a world government striving toward supranationality. There considerations are at the core of the modern political science concept of “global governance” focusing on problems of political rule and control on one hand and on the other on the participation of representatives of civil society in the creation of international norms.

Considering the high complexity and diversity of problem areas, ethical perspectives, interests as well as the cultural differences among the actors involved, the crucial question concerns the ways in which they might come to agree about norms and principles or at least normative starting points for social and legal norms. Put differently, how can cooperation result in the formulation of a set of rules to guide behaviour as well as thought processes, feelings and thereby individual and social identity formation?

The presently observable processes of cooperation are at a considerable distance from Kant’s rational ethics. Kant claimed that the rational idea of a peaceful society of all peoples was not simply a philanthropic idea but constituted a legal principle, entailing that permanent and general peace-making would eventually become the final true objective of legal theory. Societies in the past two centuries adopted the nation-state as their organizational framework. The internationalization of interactions in all areas of life increased the urgency of setting up common rules and norms to safeguard peace and order. Presently, much more comprehensive - quite often global - frameworks are needed, a realization which has enhanced the importance of international organizations as sites for a multilateral discourse in conceiving and implementing new and generally acceptable principles with political and legal weight.

The rapid scientific and technical development of medical research required that the Council of Europe harmonize national laws by creating a general framework convention, laying down general guidelines in the policy fields of biomedicine and bioethics in order to protect mankind and the continued existence of human societies. The protection of the human person and all ist rights includes the right to self-determination, the prohibition of genetical manipulation without the informed consent of the persons involved, the regulation of stem cell research and cloning, etc.

Normative and political pressures compel all states to acknowledge human rights, but they do so for different reasons. This becomes evident in the insufficient implementation of agreed standards. The human rights discourse constitutes an integral element of international politics and their implementation is the responsibility of international organizations such as the United Nations (UN) or regional entities such as the Council of Europe, the members of which are sovereign states.

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