The Possibility of Interimperial Law

• Published date: 01 September 2018
• Date: 01 September 2018
• Author: Karol Dobrzeniecki
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/raju.12221

© 2018 The Author. Ratio Juris © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Ratio Juris. Vol. 31 No. 3 September 2018 (364–374 )

The Possibility of Interimperial Law

KAROL DOBRZE NIECK I*

1. Introduction

It is evident to any reasonable person that there are cert ain great powers

(empires) that play an essential role in shaping and creati ng the international

order. They may be designated as those global actors with a rea l, effective, and

dominant inf luence over international relations thank s to extensive military and

economic power. However, the position of empires as legal subjec ts is problematic.

From the perspective of internation al law, the principle of sovereign equalit y of

States applies to the powerful ones as well as to other s (Kelsen 1944, 207–20). Each

sovereign state is equal before the law. However, empires seem to have more

rights (e.g., a permanent seat on the UN Security Council) and capabil ities to

reshape norms affect ing all states. Such states are someti mes considered as too

powerful for the internationa l community. The US, China, and Russia have often

been criticized for v iolations of international law for their militar y interventions

or occupations or for the use of tortu re. The problem might be examined also

from a different perspec tive. One may look for regularities in their “abusive”

behaviour in order to ascerta in whether the empires respect t heir own “law” or

at least a set of principles, even while breaching i nternational law.

The purpose of the ar ticle is to consider the concept of interimperial law under-

stood as a body of norms valid among empires. The n ature of the law might be also

conceptualized a s a relationship between differ ent areas of imperial inf luences.1

The author aims to identify what the contemporar y criteria of imperiality and what

the peculiar ities of mutual relations between empires i n the normative context

might be. In the article t he realistic mode of interpretation prevail s over the

1 The term Groβraum for the desig nation of “great space of imperial influence s” was proposed by

Carl Schmitt i n 1939 (see Schmitt 1991, 1939, 23). Prior to that, international law developed t he

concept of “spheres of interest” and “spheres of in fluence” during the British age of t he law of

nations (1815–1918). Spheres of interest in a nar row sense referred to “those more or le ss ownerless

territories which were not yet c aught within the Europea n division of the world, were contiguous

to the colonies of a Europea n power, and in which th at power claimed a preferential legal posi-

tion” (Grewe 2000, 474), whereas spheres of inf luence relate to “territories of State-lik e entities that

suffered from con stitutional weakness or inter nal decay. Such spheres of influence were agreed

among the European powers ab ove all in respect of Morocco, Persia and Chi na” (ibid., 475).

* The article ha s been prepared withi n a project finance d by the Polish National Science Centr e

(Decision number DEC-2013/8/M/HS5/00345).