The Politics of Time in Domestic and International Lawmaking

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Abstract (may include machine translation)

Domestic and international regulators routinely invoke and construct different time horizons to justify the creation of legal norms within their respective spheres. In their routine development, national and international lawmaking processes are characterized by different temporal narratives, and this mismatch occasionally causes frictions between the two levels of governance. Two factors are essential for understanding the role played by the politics of time in the definition of normative outcomes at the domestic and international levels. Firstly, the time perceptions and preferences of any community are socially constructed, ever-changing, and may be strategically manipulated to pursue specific policy goals. Secondly, the production of legal norms always entails diachronic commitments, which generate dilemmas for lawmakers whenever they choose between short- and long-term objectives. While domestic normative processes and time narratives are predominantly characterized by a circular and short-term horizon, international law chiefly involves a linear, incremental, long-term progression towards some ultimate goal of humankind. The interaction between the different time narratives enshrined in domestic and international lawmaking shapes the temporal dimensions of global governance and regulatory action.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationInternational Law and Time
Subtitle of host publicationNarratives and Techniques
EditorsKlara Polackova Van der Ploeg, Luca Pasquet, León Castellanos-Jankiewicz
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media B.V.
Pages153-174
Number of pages22
ISBN (Electronic)9783031094651
ISBN (Print)9783031094644, 9783031094675
DOIs
StatePublished - 2022

Publication series

NameIus Gentium
Volume101
ISSN (Electronic)2214-9902

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