Rules, Norms, and Decisions: On the Conditions of Practical and Legal Reasoning in International Relations and Domestic Affairs

by Friedrich V. Kratochwil

• ISBN13: 9780521409711
• ISBN10: 0521409713
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1991-04-26
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This book assesses the impact of norms on decision-making. It argues that norms influence choices not by being causes for actions, but by providing reasons. Consequently it approaches the problem via an investigation of the reasoning process in which norms play a decisive role. Kratochwil argues that, depending upon the strictness the guidance norms provide in arriving at a decision, different styles of reasoning with norms can be distinguished. While the focus in this book is largely analytical, the argument is developed through the interpretation of the classic thinkers in international law (Grotius, Vattel, Pufendorf, Rousseau, Hume, Habermas).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1. Rules, norms, and actions: laying the conceptual foundations

2. Anarchy and the state of nature: the issue of regimes in international relations

3. The emergence of types and forms

4. The force of prescriptions: Hume, Hobbes, Durkheim and Freud on compliance with norms

5. The discourse on grievances: Pufendorf and the 'laws of nature' as constitutive principles for the discursive settlement of disputes

6. The notion of 'right'

7. The question of 'law'

8. The path of legal arguments

Conclusion

Notes

Index.