The Power of Legitimacy Among Nations

Download or read book The Power of Legitimacy Among Nations written by Thomas M. Franck and published by Oxford University Press on Demand. This book was released on 1990 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although there is no international government, and no global police agency enforces the rules, nations obey international law. In this provocative study, Franck employs a broad range of historical, legal, sociological, anthropological, political, and philosophical modes of analysis to unravel the mystery of what makes states and people perceive rules as legitimate. Demonstrating that virtually all nations obey most rules nearly all of the time, Franck reveals that the more legitimate laws and institutions appear to be, the greater is their capacity for compliance. Distilling those factors which increase the perception of legitimacy, he shows how a community of rules can be fashioned from a system of sovereign states without creating a global leviathan.