The Developing International Law of Democracy
| Author | Richard Burchill |
| Published date | 01 January 2001 |
| Date | 01 January 2001 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2230.00313 |
REVIEW ARTICLE
The Developing International Law of Democracy
Richard Burchill*
Gregory H. Fox and Brad R. Roth (eds),Democratic Governance and
International Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000, 585 pp, pb
£19.95.
I
Since the early 1990s democracy has become a topic of great interest in
international law and relations. The end of communism in the Soviet Union and
elsewhere has been described as the international victory of democracy.1This
‘victory’ of democracy across the world quickly led to claims that there now exists
a right to democracy in international human rights law, as well as the existence of
democracy as a guiding principle of general international law.2
These developments are welcomed as of positive benefit to the international
system in the long-term. However, supporters of democracy as an international
legal principle have shown a tendency towards an unquestionable acceptance of the
existence of new legal rules that appeared almost overnight. This sudden
appearance, and unquestioning acceptance, creates numerous difficulties. The
most obvious is the lack of investigation into or discussion of what this idea of
democracy contains, and the basis upon which any action in its name may be
claimed. Before the collapse of the communist regimes in Europe most states in the
world claimed to be democratic in one way or another, even though there were
drastic and noticeable differences between the various forms of democracy. Owing
to the variety of democratic practices and the fact that ‘one word passed as
common currency in several different languages’, democracy was once an idea not
taken seriously at the international level except in the context of ideological
struggles.3Now, it is claimed, the situation has changed and everyone is speaking
the same democratic language allowing for a single notion of democracy to be seen
as part of international law and relations. It is undeniable that there has been a shift
towards democracy in the international system, yet what it means to be democratic
or how democracy is manifested in law and practice are issues not adequately
ßThe Modern Law Review Limited 2001 (MLR 64:1, January). Published by Blackwell Publishers,
108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA. 123
* School of Law, University of Hull. Thanks to Richard Barnes and Rob Cryer for comments on an earlier
draft. Numbers which appear in parenthesis in the text are references to the page numbers of the volume
under review.
1 See Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man (London: Hamilton, 1992).
2 Thomas Franck, ‘The Emerging Right to Democratic Governance’ (1992) 86 American Journal of
International Law 46; Anne-Marie Slaughter, ‘International Law in a World of Liberal States’ (1995)
6European Journal of International Law 503.
3 See Susan Marks, ‘The End of History? Reflections on Some International Legal Theses’ (1997) 8
European Journal of International Law 449.
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