ABSTRACT
This concluding chapter recapitulates the theoretical and empirical importance of studying the synergetic relationship between the legalization of international legitimation and the lawyerization of state decision making. The conclusion further elaborates on the mutual reinforcement between the two processes – from system to unit, and vice versa – to demonstrate the stability of the trends of increasing legalization and lawyerization shown in the preceding chapters. In a progressively legalized international system constituted by progressively lawyerized states, the relationship between international law and state behavior is undergoing a deep transformation – a transformation that strengthens the explanatory potential of the practice theory of compliance proposed.
