The International Rule of Law in the Cycle of Contestations and Deference

This paper is the concluding chapter of the edited volume ‘the rule of law at the national and international levels: contestations and deference’. The paper first provides some patterns of national contestations (section I) and international deference (section II). The paper moves on to identify some of the shortcomings of the process of developing international law through national contestations and international deference (section III). Our overall argument is that the cycle of national contestations and international responses can be conceptualized as an integral part of the rule of law in the international legal order (section IV).