The research project “Does International Law Matter? The UN Security Council and State Actions” examines to what extent and how international law influences states’ decision-making and actual behaviour when it comes to the use of force. The project adopts a mixed-method design, combining traditional legal approaches to sources of law and interpretation, empirical legal methods and social science methods. It will use existing datasets to select armed conflicts for further study, including cases which have been subject to debate and decisions of the Security Council and cases which have not.
The project is funded by the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet) for the period 2019-2022. The project involves colleagues from the political science department at Stockholm University. Papers, published texts and datasets (when completed) will be published on this page.
Articles and papers
– Per Ahlin, “From Libya to Syria – Did the Nato forces in Libya really exceed the mandate given in SC Resolution 1973 (2011)?” in Juridisk Tidskrift, Nr 3 2018/19, s. 479
– Per Ahlin, “Kampen om non-interventionsprincipen – Sverige i FN:s säkerhetsråd 2017-2018”, forthcoming
– Mark Klamberg, “Interpretation of Security Council Resolutions and the Function of Explanation of Votes – Protecting the Status Quo or Agents of Change?“, available at SSRN.
Presentations
– Public International Law (PIL) discussion group, University of Oxford, 28th February 2018, lecture “Interpretation of Security Council Resolutions and the Status of Explanation of Votes”
– Workshop NoLesLaw (Network of Legal Empirical Scholars), Helsinki, 2 November 2018, presentation “Empirical legal research in international law”
The funding has also been used for a separate project on State of Emergency and COVID-19. Read more here.
Articles and papers on State of Emergency and COVID-19
– Magnus Lundgren, Mark Klamberg, Karin Sundström and Julia Dahlqvist, “Emergency Powers in Response to COVID-19: Policy Diffusion, Democracy, and Preparedness“, available at SSRN.
– Mark Klamberg, “Reconstructing the Notion of State of Emergency“, George Washington International Law Review, 2020, vol. 52(1) forthcoming
– Mark Klamberg, “International Human Rights Law and States of Emergency” in Damien Rogers (ed.), International Human Rights. Human Rights in War, Springer, forthcoming
– Mark Klamberg, “Between normalcy and state of emergency: The legal framework for Sweden’s coronavirus strategy“, 9 April 2020 Article, The Local, 2020
– Mark Klamberg, “Challenges to rule of law, democracy and human rights after the outbreak of COVID-19 from a Swedish perspective“, July 2020 Paper, Japan Center for International Exchange, 17 July 2020
PhD project
– PhD in Society “Algorithms in the Workplace”
Team members:
Dr. Per Ahlin, contact and bio
Professor Mark Klamberg (project leader), contact and bio
Dr. Magnus Lundgren, contact and bio
PhD candidate Karin Sundström, contact and bio
Professor Jonas Tallberg, contact and bio
Research team, assisting with coding:
PhD candidate Julia Dahlqvist, contact and bio
Sesen Mebrahtu
Marie Karly Veloso
Martin Lundqvist