Democracy and the United Nations

Abstract

Dame Rosalyn Higgins DBE QC delivered the Keynote Address at the Cambridge Journal of International and Comparative Law Fourth Annual Conference, ‘Developing Democracy: Conversations on Democratic Governance in International, European and Comparative Law’, on Friday 8 May at the Divinity School of St John’s College at the University of Cambridge. This address examines the place of democracy in international law, focusing on instruments from the Charter of the United Nations to the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States. These instruments illustrate that democracy has never been a critical element for recognition of statehood. Rather, the promotion of democracy as a significant value is evident in human rights instruments which suggest that democracy, rather than being a free-standing legal concept, is intertwined with concepts of human rights and the rule of law. The address concludes by reflecting on the most recent trajectory of democracy as a concept amongst the international law community.