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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.

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.