国际法院的权威危机与自主性挑战——以尼加拉瓜案的判决为例

International Court Faced with Its Authority Crisis and Challenges of Autonomy:A Case Study Concerning the Nicaragua Judgment

美国同国际组织的互动,典型地反映出它在特定国际权力格局和历史背景下,对待自由主义国际秩序的态度。同时,此种互动也反映了处于衰落进程中的霸权国家,面对已经成型的多边主义机制的两难境地。作为具有韦伯所称的官僚组织特征的国际组织,国际法院拥有的法理、道义、专家与授予性权威共同构成了其行为自主性的基础。国际法院的权威和自主性,造就了它在大国影响以外的自主行为与利益偏好,意味着它绝非仅仅作为霸权傀儡存在。在“尼加拉瓜诉美国案”发生时,美国由于结构性权力优势地位的衰落、美苏对抗局势的激化以及里根主义对多边机构的轻视,选择以撤回权力授予为威胁对法院的自主性提出挑战,希望损害法院权威以减轻国家利益的损失;而法院则在组织利益与组织文化的双重影响下,选择以放弃美国的支持为代价维系其他权威的稳定性,最大限度保障其自主性。这进一步证明了国际法院作为联合国主要司法机关对自身权威与自主性运用的明确立场,为大国与国际组织的互动模式提供了具有启示性的指引,揭示了霸权的自我束缚与必然衰落。

Interaction of the US with international organizations typically reflects its attitudes towards liberal international order against the background of this particular layout of international power and history.This interaction also reflects the predicament of this declining hegemonic country when it is faced with the multilateral mechanism in formation.The international court,as an international organization with certain bureaucratic features as pointed by Weber,bases its autonomy on jurisprudence,morality,professionals and granted authority.Its authority and autonomy forge its autonomous behaviors and interest partiality beyond the influence of major powers,its existence not merely as the puppet to hegemony.At the time of Nicaragua suing US,US,due to the then declining structural power superiority and the intensifying US-USSR conflict coupled with the contempt of Reaganism to multilateral organizations,challenged the autonomy of the court by threatening to withdraw the power it granted,wishing to reduce the loss of their national benefits by means of damaging the court’s authority.The court,however,opted to maintain its stability at the price of give up US support under the double influence of its organizational interest and culture,by which it sustained its autonomy to the greatest possible extent.This further proves the clear standpoint of the international court as a major UN judiciary organization concerning its authority and autonomy,providing a enlightening guidance for a major power to interact with international organizations,revealing the self-restriction and unavoidable decline of hegemony.