Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-gtxcr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T04:32:15.108Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Legitimizing Dispute Settlement: International Legal Rulings as Domestic Political Cover

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 May 2006

TODD L. ALLEE  and
PAUL K. HUTH
TODD L. ALLEE
Affiliation:
University of Illinois
PAUL K. HUTH
Affiliation:
University of Maryland
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We develop and test a general argument about the conditions under which state leaders are most likely to choose legal dispute resolution over bilateral negotiations as a means to settle international disputes. Our central claim is that leaders who anticipate significant domestic audience costs for the making of voluntary, negotiated concessions are likely to seek the “political cover” of an international legal ruling. In such cases, it will be easier for leaders to justify the making of concessions if they are mandated as part of a ruling by an international court or arbitration body. We test a series of domestic-level hypotheses using a dataset comprised of nearly 1,500 rounds of talks concerning disputed territorial claims. Our multivariate analyses indicate that state leaders opt for legal dispute resolution when they are highly accountable to domestic political opposition, as well as when the dispute is highly salient to domestic audiences.

Type
ARTICLES
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 100 , Issue 2 , May 2006 , pp. 219 - 234
Copyright
© 2006 by the American Political Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abbott Kenneth W., and Duncan Snidal. 1998. “Why States Act Through Formal International Organizations.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 42 (February): 3– 32.Google Scholar
Abbott Kenneth W., and Duncan Snidal. 2000. “Hard and Soft Law in International Governance.” International Organization 54 (Summer): 421– 56.Google Scholar
Amemiya Takeshi. 1985. Advanced Econometrics. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Bennett D. Scott. 1998. “Integrating and Testing Models of Rivalry Duration.” American Journal of Political Science 42 (October): 1200– 32.Google Scholar
Bennett D. Scott. 1997. “Measuring Rivalry Termination.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 41 (April): 227– 54.Google Scholar
Bilder Richard. 1989. “International Third Party Dispute Settlement.” Denver Journal of International Law and Policy 17: 471– 503.Google Scholar
Brownlie Ian. 1990. Principles of Public International Law, 4th ed. New York: Oxford University Press.
Bueno de Mesquita Bruce, Alastair Smith, Randolph M. Siverson, and James D. Morrow. 2003. The Logic of Political Survival. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Coplin William D., and J. Martin Rochester. 1972. “The Permanent Court of Justice, the International Court of Justice, the League of Nations, and the United Nations: A Comparative Empirical Survey.” American Political Science Review 66 (August): 529– 50.Google Scholar
Diehl Paul, and Gary Goertz. 2000. War and Peace in International Rivalry. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Dixon William. 1993. “Democracy and the Management of International Conflict.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 37 (February): 42– 68.Google Scholar
Dixon William. 1994. “Democracy and the Peaceful Settlement of International Conflict.” American Political Science Review 88 (February): 14– 32.Google Scholar
Dominguez Jorge. 2003. Boundary Disputes in Latin America. Washington DC: United States Institute of Peace Press.
Downs George W., and Michael A. Jones. 2002. “Reputation, Compliance, and International Law.” Journal of Legal Studies 31 (January): S95– S114.Google Scholar
Eyffinger Arthur. 1996. The International Court of Justice. Boston: Kluwer Law International.
Franck Thomas M. 1990. The Power of Legitimacy Among Nations. New York: Oxford University Press.
Franck Thomas M. 1995. Fairness in International Law and Institutions. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Ginsburg Tom, and Richard H. McAdams. 2004. “Adjudicating in Anarchy: An Expressive Theory of International Dispute Resolution.” William & Mary Law Review 45 (March): 1229– 39.Google Scholar
Gray Christine, and Benedict Kingsbury. 1993. “Developments in Dispute Settlement.” In The British Year Book of International Law 1992, vol. 63. New York: Oxford University Press, 97– 134.
Greene William. 2002. Econometric Analysis. 5th Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Guzman Andrew T., and Beth A. Simmons. 2002. “To Settle or Empanel? An Empirical Analysis of Litigation and Settlement at the World Trade Organization.” Journal of Legal Studies 31 (January): S205– S235.Google Scholar
Heckman James J. 1979. “Sample Selection Bias as a Specification Error.” Econometrica 47 (January): 153– 61.Google Scholar
Hensel Paul R. 2001. “Contentious Issues and World Politics.” International Studies Quarterly 45 (March): 81– 110.Google Scholar
Huth Paul K. 1996. Standing Your Ground. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Huth Paul K., and Todd L. Allee. 2002. The Democratic Peace and Territorial Conflict in the Twentieth Century. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Jaggers Keith, and Ted Robert Gurr. 1995. “Transitions to Democracy: Tracking Democracy's Third Wave with the Polity III Data.” Journal of Peace Research 32 (July): 469– 82.Google Scholar
Keohane Robert O., Andrew Moravcsik, and Anne-Marie Slaughter. 2000. “Legalized Dispute Resolution.” International Organization 54 (Summer): 457– 88.Google Scholar
Koremenos Barbara, Charles Lipson, and Duncan Snidal. 2001. “The Rational Design of International Institutions.” International Organization 55 (Fall): 761– 99.Google Scholar
Long J. Scott. 1997. Regression Models for Categorical and Limited Dependent Variables. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Maddala G. S. 1983. Limited Dependent and Qualitative Variables in Econometrics. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Merrills J. G. 1984. International Dispute Settlement. London: Sweet & Maxwell.
Mitchell Sara McLaughlin. 2002. “A Kantian System? Democracy and Third-Party Conflict Resolution.” American Journal of Political Science 46 (October): 749– 59.Google Scholar
Morrow James D. 2001. “The Institutional Features of the Prisoners of War Treaties.” International Organization 55 (Fall): 973– 93.Google Scholar
Posner Eric A., and de Figueiredo Miguel. 2004. “Is the International Court of Justice Biased?” University of Chicago Law and Economics, Olin Working Paper No. 234.
Putnam Robert. 1988. “Diplomacy and Domestic Politics.” International Organization 42 (Summer): 427– 60.Google Scholar
Raymond Gregory. 1994. “Democracies, Disputes, and Third-Party Intermediaries” Journal of Conflict Resolution 38 (February): 24– 42.Google Scholar
Reiter Dan, and Allan Stam. 2002. Search for Victory. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Romano Cesare. 1997. The Cost of International Justice. New York University Center on International Cooperation, manuscript.
Schelling Thomas. 1960. The Strategy of Conflict. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Simmons Beth A. 1999. “See you in “Court”? The Appeal to Quasi-Judicial Legal Processes in the Settlement of Territorial Disputes.” In A Road Map to War, ed. Paul Diehl. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 205– 37.
Simmons Beth A. 2000. “International Law and State Behavior.” American Political Science Review 94 (November): 819– 36.Google Scholar
Simmons Beth A. 2002. “Capacity, Commitment, and Compliance.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 46 (December): 829– 56.Google Scholar
Slaughter Anne-Marie. 1995. “International Law in a World of Liberal States.” European Journal of International Law 6: 503– 38.Google Scholar
Smith James McCall. 2000. “The Politics of Dispute Settlement Design.” International Organization 54 (Winter): 137– 80.Google Scholar
Sohn Louis. 1961. “The Role of International Institutions as Conflict Adjusting Agencies.” The University of Chicago Law Review 28 (2): 205– 57.Google Scholar
Stuyt A. M. 1990. Survey of International Arbitration 1794–1989. 3rd Ed. Boston: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.
Thompson William. 1995. “Principal Rivalries.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 39 (April): 195– 223.Google Scholar