The Fluid State: International Law and National Legal Systems

The Fluid State was cited by the High Court in Momcilovic v The Queen [2011] HCA 34 (8 September 2011)Traditional accounts of the relationship between international and national law present the interaction between the two as relatively ordered, if conflicting. This limited view of the relationship has become outmoded, as the scope of international legal regulation and the internationalised context of domestic law continue to expand. This book analyses some of the national contexts in which international law and domestic law interact and identifies the way in which attitudes to international law shift between them. Some of the questions considered are:How do perceptions of international law differ according to particular institutional vantage-points, whether that of the executive, the legislature or the judiciary? What is the impact of the perceived 'democratic deficit' in international treaty-making? What are some of the ways in which the judiciary acts as a gatekeeper between the national and international legal orders? How does national politics influence engagement with the international sphere? The contributors bring a range of different perspectives: politics, law and international relations. They include influential scholars such as Mayo Moran, Ann Capling, John Uhr, Andrew Byrnes and Janet MacLean and they discuss contemporary issues, such as the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement and the 2003 Iraq War.