Contestation and Constitution of Norms in Global International Relations

Antje Wiener examines the involvement of local actors in conflicts over global norms such as fundamental rights and the prohibition of torture and sexual violence. Providing accounts of local interventions made on behalf of those affected by breaches of norms, she identifies the constraints and opportunities for stakeholder participation in a fragmented global society. The book also considers cultural and institutional diversity with regard to the co-constitution of norm change. Proposing a clear framework to operationalize research on contested norms, and illustrating it through three recent cases, this book contributes to the project of global international relations by offering an agency-centred approach. It will interest scholars and advanced students of international relations, international political theory, and international law seeking a principled approach to practice that overcomes the practice-norm gap.

1. Whose practices count?; 2. Norms lie in the practice; 3. Normative structures and rules of engagement; 4. Transformative power: framing the co-constitution of normative change; 5. Making fundamental rights a global issue: the Kadi case and contested 'moral responsibility'; 6. Bringing on the torture convention: the Rumsfeld case and contested 'universal jurisdiction'; 7. Putting violence against women during wartime onto the global agenda: Resolution 1325 and the contested 'culture of impunity'; 8. A voice through the practice.

Antje Wiener has held the Chair of Political Science at the Universität Hamburg since 2009. She is a By-Fellow of Hughes Hall, Cambridge and has been a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences since 2011. She has served on boards of several leading academic journals and has been co-founding editor of the journal Global Constitutionalism with Jim Tully. Among her many book publications are three monographs: 'European' Citizenship Practice: Building Institutions of a Non-State (1997), The Invisible Constitution of Politics: Contested Norms and International Encounters (Cambridge, 2008) and A Theory of Contestation (2014).