this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2025
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Aren't the ICJ, ICC and UNSC institutions of international law? And haven't they ruled over and over again that the settlements, occupations, blockades, and blocking of humanitarian aid to Palestine have been violations of international law?
The international courts are courts in name only. They don't have power because it is by design and thus any rulings are non-binding. The only real power there is is the UNSC, and it is extremely corrupt as everyone knows.
It sounds like for you the signature of legitimacy is not the soundness of legal judgments as developed within consensus and consent and principle based deliberation, but their enforceability with weapons. And so I think we probably have diametrically opposite ideas of what renders laws legitimate.
This comment reads like it was written by somebody who has only ever read books and never experienced the truth of "Might Makes Right."
Just because he was an authoritarian communist doesn't mean Mao was incorrect when he said that all political power derives from the barrel of a gun.
Similarly, a law means absolutely nothing if it has no teeth, no consequences if broken.
A court of experts may very well come to a consensus on a ruling. But if they have no way to enforce that ruling, or carry out sentencing, what good is it? It's essentially just virtue signaling at that point.
Thank you for the complement! But I haven't read anything, and I don't think being the face that the boot stomps on would make me agree that "laws" enforced in that manner have anything to do with legitimacy. Legitimacy has to do with adherence to principles, consent of the governed.
Something is certainly being enforced in the scenario you have described, but certainly not legitimate laws.
Not the person you replied to, and I am not trying to sound elitist, but a lot of people have ill-informed views. If they simply didn't know before, it's okay; but a lot people proudly prance as if they're right, when their views are Twitter-takes instead of coming from expert sources.