The Normative Force of Conflict: Norm Specification Through Processes of Norm Contestation

Drawing on legal discourse theory, Antonio Arcudi’s dissertation addresses the question of how contestation over international norms – their discursive challenges and controversies – in turn affects these disputed norms.

The responsibility to protect and the ICC between evolution and erosion

The dissertation “The Normative Force of Conflict: Norm Specification Through Processes of Norm Contestation” connects to existing research on international norms that, though comprehensive in its analysis of norm contestation, still lacks consensus on the issue of whether contestation has a strengthening or a weakening effect on the norms in question. Using the example of two contested international norms – the international Responsibility to Protect and the duty to prosecute grave human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law –, this project analyzes the extent to which norm contestation leads to the specification of that particular norm.