Benedict Kingsbury

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The capacity of international society to deal with the challenges posed by the claims of non-state groups is a matter of pressing concern. The adequacy of existing international structures is highly questionable. Fundamental conflicts exist between values of justice and the hitherto dominant values of order. While many of the issues are not primarily legal, public international law is necessarily involved. This article examines the norms developed in the international legal system to address issues arising in relations between states and non-state groups. This article argues that in international political debates, and in much (but by no means all) of the principal legal material, three distinct general domains of discourse have been employed to express and address claims by non-state groups. The separate structure of each of these domains has obscured the overlap (if not the identity) of underlying justificatory purposes among these different domains.