State civil disobedience: morally justified violations of international law considered as civil disobedience

International legalization promises to civilize world politics with global legal norms that bind states' behavior effectively. However, international legal norm can also institutionalize unjust forms of cooperation and the dominance of powerful states. In order to challenge unjust global rules the concept of civil disobedience has to be extended to international law violations by sovereign states. In the national realm civil disobedience has contributed extensively to the establishment of human rights. In order to use the concept for international politics, this paper develops criteria for state civil disobedience which are then applied to the Argentine foreign debt repudiation and Bolivia's violations of international investment law. Furthermore two hypotheses concerning causes and consequences of state civil disobedience are formulated