Teaching International Law: State-Consent as Consent to a Process of Normative Development and Ensuing Problems

In this booklet, the text of which formed the basis for a lecture held upon the acceptance of the Chair of Public International Law at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, the author explores the role of state-consent in normative development at the international level during times of globalization. She makes the point that increasingly state-consent is understood as consent to a process of normative development, the outcome of which is unknown at the time when consent is given. Understanding state-consent in this manner, however, results in questions arising with respect to the legitimacy of international decision-making processes. These questions address transparency and accountability in international decision-making and are related to the changing character of the international legal system, which increasingly besides regulating the interests that states share also seeks to regulate the common-interest of the international community.