New Trends in the Development of International Law and China's Response against the Background of Regional Shift in Global Governance
Currently,international law is facing the following four major challenges:first,profound changes in the international balance of power;second,the difficulty in balancing the interests of developed and developing countries in the international legal order;third,the danger of"hollowing out of power"faced by the international legal order;and fourth,the grad-ual intensification of the international legislative game.At present,international law also pres-ents four major development trends.The first trend is that the nihilism of international law has resurfaced.Firstly,the call for limiting or even eliminating the veto power of permanent mem-bers of the United Nations Security Council(UNSC)is on the rise.Secondly,the system of in-ternational trade and investment rules has been questioned.Lastly,the abuse of"long-arm ju-risdiction"and the imposition of unilateral sanctions by the United States not only constitute a serious violation of basic norms of international law and international relations but also under-mine the confidence of states in the international rule of law.The second trend is that the frag-mentation of international legislation has become more pronounced.For example,the law-mak-ing activities of international organizations play an irreplaceable role in maintaining,safeguard-ing,and promoting the modern international legal order.The third trend is that the image of in-ternational(quasi-)judicial institutions as expanding powers is becoming increasingly promi-nent.First of all,the tendency of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea to expand its powers by automatically conferring advisory jurisdiction on the entire Tribunal is particularly ob-vious.Secondly,the phenomenon of international arbitration tribunals overstepping and expan-ding their powers is obvious.And finally,the International Court of Justice(ICJ)has violated the"principle of consent of the state".The fourth trend is that the rule-making power of inter-national law is being shifted to regional international organizations.There has been a growing phenomenon of the fragmentation of the camps of groups of states and the formulation of interna-tional rules by regional or quasi-regional international organizations.The phenomenon of shifting the leading role in the creation of international economic and trade rules to regional international organizations is also particularly obvious.China may respond to the new challenges to and new trends in the development of international law in the following two ways.First,upholding the international legal order of multilateralism.And second,making an initial effort to construct a discourse and theoretical system of regional governance in terms of institution-building,agenda-setting and norm proliferation,and further enhancing its influence in the practice of internation-al governance in neighboring regions and even in extraterritorial regions.
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