New CMS Report: The Great Powers and the Formation of International Law: Implications for Denmark
The United States, Russia, and China – the current “Great Powers” – often disagree over the primary rules of international law, such as the scope of self-defence in response to an armed attack. Sometimes, these disagreements are rooted in very different understandings of the formal sources of international law: the sources that determine what qualifies as a primary rule.
The new CMS report “The Great Powers and the Formation of International Law: Implications for Denmark” maps these different understandings and examines how Denmark can navigate Great Power disagreements over international law.
Based on an analysis of differences between US, Russian, and Chinese understandings in the context of jus ad bellum, jus in bello, arms control, and cyberspace, the report makes recommendations about how Denmark should position itself in the debate about the formal sources and primary rules of international law.