Harold Koh on International Norms and “Skeptical” Nation-States

Ted Bromund / April 21, 2009

The Administration’s nominee for Legal Adviser to the State Department, Harold Koh, has explained – in his 1998 Frankel Lecture, later published in the Houston Law Review – that one of the Adviser’s roles is to “help maintain . . . habitual compliance with internalized international norms.” He has also praised what he describes as “sympathetic people from within government,” who take it upon themselves not only to ensure compliance with previous norms, but to promote new ones. It is therefore relevant to examine Koh’s views on the origin and legal validity of those norms.

According to Koh, who in 2002 summarized and refined his 1998 lecture, the process of norm creation has five stages. (more…)