Encounters between Foreign Relations Law and International Law

Foreign relations law and public international law are two closely related academic fields that tend to speak past each other. As this innovative volume shows, the two are closely interrelated and depend on each other for their mutual construction and identity. A better understanding of this relationship is of vital importance for upholding important constitutional values like democracy, the rule of law and the protection of human rights, while enabling states to engage in meaningful forms of international cooperation. The book takes a close look at the encounters between the two fields and offers perspectives for a constructive engagement between the two. Collectively, the contributions argue that the delimitation between the two fields occurs in a hybrid zone of interaction which requires both bridges and boundaries: bridges for the construction of the relationship between the two fields, and boundaries for preserving key normative expectations of both domestic and international law.

Helmut Philipp Aust is a Professor of Law at Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, and Co-Chair of the ILA Study Group ‘The Role of Cities in International Law’. Publications include Complicity and the Law of State Responsibility (2011) and The Interpretation of International Law by Domestic Courts (2016, with Georg Nolte).

Thomas Kleinlein is a Professor of Law at Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany, where he holds the Chair of Public Law, Public International Law, EU Law and Comparative Law and is Co-Director of the Center for European Studies. Publications include System, Order, and International Law: The Early History of International Legal Thought (2017, with Stefan Kadelbach and David Roth-Isigkeit).