1\. Introduction 5 2\. A Richer View of Legalization 7 2.1 Legitimacy and IR
Legalization Research 7 2.2 Media as Settings for ‘Public Legitimacy’
Assessments of Law 7 2.3 Case Selection, Data, and Methods 9 3\. Framing the
Use of Force 10 3.1 The Visibility of International Law in European and US
Media 10 3.2 A Transnational ‘Public Legitimacy’ of Law in Media Debates? 14
4\. Concluding Remarks 17 Literature 19 Appendix 21For almost a decade, ‘public legitimacy’ has remained largely unaddressed in
empirical international relations (IR) analyses of international legalization.
Yet, this concept has behavioral consequences. IR scholars for long assume
that a belief in the legitimacy of a norm may be one reason for a ‘compliance
pull’ on the international stage. The present study addresses this gap. It
suggests a sociological conception of legalization observable in mass media
debates and encompassing law’s ‘public legitimacy’, understood as the
congruence between legal regulations and discursive practices to that effect
that these rules are also accepted by the larger public. This conception is
illustrated in European and US newspaper reporting about military
interventions in the post-Cold War era (1990-2005). Based on a large-n media
analysis, the study not only concludes that an ‘international rule of law’
frame is heavily diffused across the communicative practices of European and
US public spheres. It also shows that two legal norms in particular – human
rights and United Nations (UN) multilateralism – generate a shared sense of
‘public legitimacy’ across the six countries analyzed
