Approaching international law as if context matters : towards an integrated framework of compliance

Abstract

As international law engages more directly and frequently with individuals and communities, this article attempts to develop an integrated framework of compliance to study how it can create behavioural and attitudinal change on ground. Using Kelman's framework of social influence, it emphasizes the institutional conditions under which any social communication (in this case, law) can persuade individuals to amend their behaviours and attitudes. Understanding the three motivational processes through which individuals may respond to a law, the nature of change induced in each of these three processes as well as the conditions necessary to trigger them can assist the international legal regime as well as states and communities in developing policy mechanisms more likely to create enduring change. It allows for creative solutions, with and without state interventions, that often get ignored in international law discourses due to its lack of understanding on how individuals respond to laws. The articles uses CEDAW and the response of African states to address the problem of Female Genital Mutilation on the continent to highlight a potential application of such a behavioural approach to IL.