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This article addresses the empirical puzzle as to why some formerly deeply embedded international norms either incrementally or rapidly lose their prescriptive status and, in the extreme, can even cease to exist. Why is it that some norms are replaced while others simply disappear? The IR literature has rich explanations for norm creation, diffusion and socialization, yet there is a theoretical and empirical gap on both the dynamics and scope conditions for the degeneration of international norms. Thus, we develop hypotheses on processes and outcomes of norm disappearances that are tested with a series of qualitative studies. Norm degenerations require the presence of actors who challenge the norm and the absence of central enforcement authorities or individual states that are willing and capable of punishing norm violations. Moreover, our study shows that norms are likely to be abolished swiftly if the environment is unstable and rapidly changing and if norms are highly precise. In contrast, norms are likely to become incrementally degenerated if the environment is relatively stable and if norms are imprecise. Both processes lead to norm substitutions, provided that competing norms are present. If rival norms are absent, norms simply disappear without being replaced. [Reprinted by permission; copyright Sage Publications Ltd. & ECPR-European Consortium for Political Research.]

Die Coronakrise ist auch eine Normenkrise, die sich auf verschiedenen Ebenen – auf der individuellen, der gesellschaftlichen, der innerstaatlichen und auf der internationalen – abspielt. Während sich das wissenschaftliche Interesse an Fragen zu Normen in der Covid-19-Pandemie bislang auf die individuelle und gesellschaftliche Ebene (etwa Hygieneregeln und Normen des öffentlichen Gesundheitsschutzes) konzentriert, nehme ich in diesem Beitrag das staatliche Handeln und die internationale Ebene in den Blick. Ausgehend von der Diagnose einer suboptimalen Pandemiebekämpfung in westlichen Demokratien entwickle ich die These, dass das Ausmaß und die Dauer der Krise auch dem schwachen internationalen Normengefüge im Bereich der Pandemiebekämpfung geschuldet sind, welches das unsichere, bisweilen gar orientierungslose Handeln von Staaten zumindest in Teilen erklärt. Zum Schluss leite ich aus dieser Analyse Handlungsempfehlungen für den Pandemievertrag ab. Der Beitrag illustriert damit an einem Beispiel, wie die Normenforschung in den Internationalen Beziehungen zum Verständnis bestimmter Aspekte globaler Krisen beitragen kann.

Article 53 of the Vienna Convention of 1969 states that a treaty is considered invalid if it is in conflict with existing norms of jus cogens, and under Article 64 of the treaty becomes invalid if it conflicts with a norm youngest of the same nature. The case Nicaragua against the United States made clear that the notion of jus cogens is steadily entrenched in international law, however, is still necessary to determine accurately that power rates referred to in Articles 53 and 64 of the Vienna Convention. Jus cogens norms include more those norms relating to morality or natural law than with traditional positivist rates derived from State practice. In general, this includes making aggressive war, crimes against humanity, war crimes, sea piracy, genocide, apartheid, slavery, and torture.Jus cogens norms are norms of customary international law which are so important, it can not be changed through treaties. Under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, any treaty that is contrary to jus cogens norms is invalid. Jus cogens norms are not listed, there is no catalog , their determined by any authoritative body, but these rates come from judicial practices and political and social attitudes, which are not values static. Jus cogens norm of unconditional right international, accepted and recognized by the international community norm from which no deviation is permitted. Unlike the common law, which traditionally requires the consent and It lets change obligations between states through treaties, norms jus cogens can not be violated by any state "through treaties international or local regulations or special customary, or even through general rules of customary not have the same normative force.

Das Recht auf Gleichstellung ist ein Menschenrecht, das international völkerrechtlich vereinbart ist. Warum diese universelle Norm bislang vor allem in muslimischen Mehrheitsgesellschaften mit Reserviertheit betrachtet und in eigener Weise ausgelegt wird, zeigt dieser Artikel am Beispiel Malaysias.

The traditional conception of watertight compartmentalization between "domestic" and "international" policy issues is simply no longer realistic. The advent of globalization has fundamentally altered how we perceive of policy-making. as Sidney Tarrow put it, "[i]n today's world, we can no more draw a sharp line between domestic and international politics than we can understand national politics in the United states apart from its local roots" (Tarrow, 2005: 2). The rise of the international importance of the climate change issue is perhaps the most prominent example of the breakdown of the traditional local versus global policy distinction.