Full Description
While entities as different as armed groups, multinational corporations, political parties, megacities, labour unions, terrorist organisations, or indigenous peoples are mentioned as non-state actors in the relevant literature, rural communities are never referred to. This book addresses the role of rural communities as non-state actors, lifting this invisibility veil with arguments coming from three theories of/scholarly approaches to international law: positivism, sociolegal realism (the New Haven School), and constitutionalism. It argues, first, that rural communities are recognised by the community of states as derived subjects of international law since they are made bearers of rights and duties in some major multilateral treaties. Second, rural communities have the ability to affect international lawmaking as they acquire the tools to influence decision-making in international arbitration and court litigation. Finally, the book highlights the need to recognise the status of rural communities when seeking global justice, as these are the communities that benefit the least from globalisation, while paying the highest price in terms of damage to the natural and sociocultural environment. Advocating for the existence of some supreme norms above the will of the states and the recognition of rural communities as non-state actors, this book will be of interest to academics, policy-makers, and non-governmental organisations working in the field of public international law and rural social matters.
The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons [Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND)] 4.0 license.
Contents
Introduction
1 Developing Dialogues on the Non-State Actor Dynamic
Defining Non-State Actors
Non-State Actors in the Changing World
Non-State Actors and the Russian Invasion of Ukraine
The Individual as a Non-State Actor: New Directions
The Covid-19 Pandemic and Non-State Actors
The Fourth Industrial Revolution and Non-State Actors
2 Rural Communities: Non-State Actors?
The View From Positivism: Rural Communities in International Law Regimes
The View From New Haven: Mobilised Rural Communities in International Law
The View From Constitutionalism: Rural Communities' Moral Standing
Taking the Argument Further: Remote Communities in International Law
Conclusion
