Democracy as an International Obligation of States and Right of the People

Table Of Contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• About the author(s)/editor(s)
• About the book
• This eBook can be cited
• Acknowledgement
• Table of contents
• Abbreviations
• A. Introduction – Democracy in international law
• I. Filling the term with life
• II. An obligation of states
• III. A right of peoples and individuals
• IV. Mode of inquiry
• B. Democracy as a legal norm in international law
• I. Is there an international obligation of states to become and remain democratic?
• 1. International conventions
• a. Global conventions
• aa. The Charter of the United Nations
• bb. Human rights treaties
• cc. Other conventions
• b. Regional conventions
• aa. Europe
• bb. The Americas
• cc. Africa and the Arab region
• dd. Asia
• c. Conclusion on international conventions
• 2. Customary international law
• a. Frequent resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly
• b. Other soft law documents
• c. Pro-democratic interventions
• aa. The intervention in the Dominican Republic in 1965
• bb. The Grenada intervention in 1983
• cc. The Panama intervention in 1989
• dd. The Iraq intervention in 2003
• ee. Interventions authorised by the United Nations Security Council: Haiti, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, Libya and Mali
• ff. Conclusion on the pro-democratic intervention
• d. Membership in international organisations
• aa. Global organisations
• bb. European organisations
• cc. American organisations
• dd. African organisations
• ee. Asian organisations
• ff. Conclusion on the practice of international organisations
• e. Democracy clauses in partnership and assistance agreements
• aa. Global institutions
• bb. The European Union
• cc. American and African economic organisations
• dd. Conclusion on the practice of democracy clauses
• f. Recognition of states and governments
• aa. Recognition of states
• bb. Recognition of governments
• g. Post-conflict state and nation building
• h. The practice of regional treaty obligations to democracy
• i. Conclusion on international custom
• 3. Conclusion concerning an international obligation to democracy
• II. Is there an international right to democracy?
• 1. International conventions
• a. The Charter of the United Nations
• b. Global human rights treaties
• c. Regional human rights treaties
• aa. Europe
• bb. The Americas
• cc. Africa
• dd. Asia
• d. The Charter of the Commonwealth
• e. Conclusion on international conventions
• 2. Customary international law
• a. The Universal Declaration on Human Rights and other soft law documents
• b. Pro-democratic interventions
• c. Electoral assistance
• d. Post-conflict state and nation building
• e. Conclusion on international custom
• 3. Conclusion concerning an international right to democracy
• III. Conclusion concerning international law on democracy
• C. The international state obligation and people’s right to democracy and existing norms of international law
• I. Democracy and the prohibition of the use of force
• 1. The prohibition of the use of force under the Charter of the United Nations and customary international law
• a. Is a non-democratic state protected by the prohibition of the use of force?
• b. Is an armed invasion in order to (re)establish democracy a use of force against the territorial integrity of a state?
• c. Is an armed invasion in order to (re)establish democracy a use of force against the political independence of a state?
• 2. Justification of the use of force under the Charter of the United Nations
• a. Authorisation by the United Nations Security Council
• aa. Is the mere existence of a non-democratic state a threat to the peace?
• aaa. The Kantian theory of democratic peace
• bbb. The case of Afghanistan
• ccc. The case of Libya
• ddd. Conclusion
• bb. Is the disruption of democracy a threat to the peace?
• aaa. The case of Haiti
• bbb. The case of Sierra Leone
• ccc. The case of Mali
• ddd. Conclusion
• cc. The practice of the United Nations Security Council
• b. The inherent right of individual or collective self-defence
• 3. Customary justifications of the use of force
• a. The doctrine of humanitarian intervention
• b. The doctrine of pro-democratic intervention
• 4. Conclusion on the use of force in the name of democracy
• II. Democracy and the prohibition of intervention
• 1. The scope of protection
• 2. Foreign intervention for reasons of democracy
• 3. Justification of the intervention
• a. Responsibility for an internationally wrongful act
• b. Injury of the intervening state and exceptions to that requirement
• c. Conclusion on the justification of the intervention
• 4. Conclusion on interventions in the name of democracy
• III. Could the implementation of an international state obligation and people’s right to democracy be reviewed under existing international mechanisms?
• 1. The International Court of Justice
• 2. The Human Rights Council
• 3. The Human Rights Committee
• 4. Regional enforcement mechanisms
• a. The European Court of Human Rights
• b. Inter-American judicial bodies
• c. African review mechanisms
• 5. Conclusion on the international enforcement mechanisms
• D. Concluding remarks
• References
• Table of Judicial Decisions
• Table of International Documents