Sovereignty Strikes Back: Continued Relevance of Common Concern of Humankind in Times of Polycrisis

The doctrine of common concern of humankind (CCH), as shaped by Professor Thomas Cottier, envisages the identification of the most pressing shared global problems as common concerns and their effective redress through law, particularly by way of (i) cooperation, (ii) homework and (iii) unilateral responses. In doing so, the CCH doctrine advances a qualified reading of state sovereignty, creating room for deference to a rules-based global order. In practice, however, global affairs in recent years have taken a turn away from rules-based interactions between states. Aggression in the name of security and the race for subsidies in the name of climate action, among others, evidence an attempt to take control back from the global to the domestic level. Prompted by such developments, this chapter revisits the previously drawn conclusions on the utility of CCH doctrine in the areas of human rights enforcement via economic sanctions and low-carbon technology diffusion. It concludes that the doctrine remains more salient than ever, especially in moving towards a rule of law rather than a rule through power. With that in focus, the chapter updates the cooperation, homework and unilateral action agenda in the regimes mentioned above – opening an opportunity to compare and contrast the two and reinforcing the continued relevance of the doctrine in the current era of deglobalisation and crisis of the rules-based international order.