Civil association across borders: Law, morality and responsibility in the post-Brexit Era

Abstract

Michael Oakeshott’s distinction between ‘civil association’ and ‘enterprise association’ has inspired international society theorists to conceive of international society as not just a ‘purposive association’ constructed by states to satisfy their interests but also as a ‘practical association’ providing formal and pragmatic rules that are not instrumental to particular goals of state policy. While this article is supportive of the Oakeshottian turn in international society theory, it suggests that somewhat different conclusions can be drawn from it. The article sketches out an alternative conception of international ‘civil association’, one that transcends the boundaries of communities. It is argued that such a notion of civil association is both possible and at the same time anchored in the experiences of the modern state. It is suggested that this notion of international civil association, when sustained by an adequate legal conception, promotes the enforcement of moral and political responsibility across borders. Finally, it is argued that European governments post-Brexit should strive to retain, as much as possible, the element of civil association present in European relations in order to preserve the civil condition, the rule of law, and in order to enhance political responsibility across borders.

Law and virtue in a post-sovereign “Commonwealth:” Neil MacCormick and the political theory of constitutional pluralism

“…This theory is original, first of all, because it goes down a rarely taken path to think about European and international integration: That of Scottish political thought. So doing, it opens a normative path to think of a multiplicity of coordinated, yet self-governing bodies—be they nations, as N. MacCormick insists, local organizations or issue-specific transnational networks (Bohman, 2004; Hjorth, 2018).…”

Varieties of international pluralism

“…Oakeshott presents civil association as a mode of association and its representation in the world as contingent. This means that it is possible that civil association can exist in different realms, such as within the state, among states and across borders (Hjorth, 2018; Nardin, 2011).…”