Issues of Interpretation and Application of the Notion of “International Legal Legitimation”
Authors: Korzhenyak A. M. 
Published: January 2025

INTRODUCTION. In the process of adapting to the changing realities of geopolitics and international law, collective legitimation has become one of the main political functions of the UN as a means of politically significant approval (or disapproval) of the behaviour and positions of states as consistent with international law and at the same time meeting the needs of the present, a means of recognising them as legitimate (or illegitimate). Awareness of the dynamic nature of such a phenomenon of contemporary international law as “international legal legitimation”, competent mastery of international legal argumentation skills, their constant improvement and updating, innovative approach to the formulation of international legal positions that could really claim to be dominant and progressive, development of an optimal mechanism for their articulation and legitimation will allow to ensure the competitiveness of Russia’s international legal policy among such rigid, wilful, but, it should be admitted, calculating and shrewd strategies of legitimation, which are applied primarily by the United States of America. Against the background of Washington’s generally successful and effective international legal legitimation of its interventions, as a result of which not a single resolution was adopted either by the UN Security Council or the UN General Assembly (UNGA) that would have qualified the American invasions of Iraq, Libya or Syria as “aggression”, the international legal support for the Russian Federation’s special military operation in the Ukraine (SVO) needs to be improved, since precisely this qualification was given to it by the UNGA. The relevance and significance of the issue increases in view of the need to enhance the quality of the international legal justification of the SVO, which should be aimed at the recognition, approval and acceptance by the majority of members of the international community of Russia’s international legal position on this issue, i. e. at its international legal legitimation, capable of reversing the currently prevailing pro-Western international legal consciousness. Therefore, this phenomenon encapsulates a tremendous applied value in the context of the increasing number of hybrid threats to the national security of our country and the emergence of new sources of such threats.

MATERIALS AND METHODS. The theoretical and empirical basis of the research is constituted by domestic and mainly foreign international legal literature with an emphasis on the latest scientific developments and also with reference to the relevant to the topic law enforcement practice (practice of the International Court of Justice) and material of specialised dictionaries. On the basis of integrative (multidimensional) approach to scientific legal research, taking into account such principles of scientific cognition as theoretical novelty and scientific relevance, the study was guided, in particular, by hermeneutic, formal-legal, formallogical, structural-functional and systematic methods, as well as methods of analysis and synthesis, legal modelling, legal construction and strategic planning.

RESEARCH RESULTS. The article reviews relevant studies on the term “legitimation” in international law, outlines various approaches to the definition and interpretation of this notion, reveals the content and structural elements of the process of international legal legitimation aimed at achieving, recognising or confirming the legitimacy of an international legal position of a state. Forming her own vision of the notion of “international legal legitimation”, the author has devised a number of classifications (structural schemes): a typology of approaches to the definition of the term “legitimation” (nihilistic, idealistic and compromise), the structure of the process of international legal legitimation, the types of international legal legitimation according to the time and will criteria.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. Amid the large-scale and powerful “legal aggression” of the West against Russia, the phenomenon of international legal legitimation of the state’s actions often raises the question of the need to be bold, inventive and even creative in formulating international legal positions in a particular area. Our hypothesis is that in the real world, in which international law is a “product of a game of powers and interests”, the direct and active involvement of the Russian Federation in the process of constructing a common model of international legal legitimation of states’ positions would help to increase the effectiveness of the protection of Russian interests. The first step on this path could be the development and approbation of an international legal mechanism of legitimation of Russia’s international legal position on the SVO. Besides, it is important to analyse the international legal legitimation practices of particular states not only in order to study and potentially absorb their experience, but also to learn how to predict and anticipate further international legal manoeuvres of a certain country so as to be able to respond to them in a timely and appropriate manner.