In recent years, scholars have increasingly applied empirical insights from cognitive research and behavioral economics to the analysis of international law and governance, a trend known as the behavioral turn in international law. These empirical insights are especially welcome in international legal scholarship where, for several decades, legal theory has been dominated by normative assumptions about individual and state behavior grounded in constructivist and rationalist approaches. However, the methodological and normative limitations of the behavioral turn have not yet been sufficiently explored. This symposium aims to examine these limitations and to provide avenues for further research.
This framing essay sets the scene for the symposium, starting with a description of the behavioral assumptions of rationalist and constructivist approaches to international law. This is followed by a description of how insights into actual human behavior might inform rationalist and constructivist approaches. Subsequently, the methodological and normative limitations of these studies are elaborated upon, laying out the contributions to this symposium. The final section brings the insights together and provides avenues for further research.