With the surge of constructivism, which values non-material factors and ideational variables, norm research became the center of interest in International Relations scholarship. The early constructivist theory is suitable for showing how a norm could be replaced by another but incapable of explaining how a norm itself changes. Hence, the next challenge for constructivism would be demonstrating a norm change mechanism. The purpose of this research is to fill a gap in the international norm literature. From a constructivist perspective, this research suggests a cyclic model of international norm change and verifies its plausibility by examining the empirical evidence of change in the international norm of self-determination. Although self-determination is one of the essential norms in the contemporary international order, it has yet to be investigated within international norm literature. Unlike the static model of early constructivists, the cyclic model of international norm change demonstrates a clear framework to see how the norm of self-determination has changed over time and explains why norm structures are sometimes stable and other times volatile. / Com o surgimento do construtivismo, que valoriza fatores não materiais e variáveis ideacionais, a pesquisa de normas tornou-se o centro de interesse em estudos de Relações Internacionais. A teoria construtivista inicial é adequada para mostrar como uma norma pode ser substituída por outra, mas incapaz de explicar como uma norma se modifica. Assim, o próximo desafio para o construtivismo seria demonstrar o mecanismo de mudança de norma. O objetivo desta pesquisa é preencher uma lacuna na literatura internacional de normas. De uma perspectiva construtivista, esta pesquisa sugere um modelo cíclico de mudança internacional de normas e verifica sua plausibilidade examinando as evidências empíricas de mudança na norma internacional de autodeterminação. Embora a autodeterminação seja uma das normas essenciais na ordem internacional contemporânea, ela ainda precisa ser investigada dentro da literatura internacional de normas. Ao contrário do modelo estático dos primeiros construtivistas, o modelo cíclico da mudança internacional de normas demonstra uma estrutura clara para ver como a norma de autodeterminação mudou ao longo do tempo e explica por que as estruturas normativas são às vezes estáveis e outras voláteis.

With the surge of constructivism, which values non-material factors and ideational variables, norm research became the center of interest in International Relations scholarship. The early constructivist theory is suitable for showing how a norm could be replaced by another but incapable of explaining how a norm itself changes. Hence, the next challenge for constructivism would be demonstrating a norm change mechanism. The purpose of this research is to fill a gap in the international norm literature. From a constructivist perspective, this research suggests a cyclic model of international norm change and verifies its plausibility by examining the empirical evidence of change in the international norm of self-determination. Although self-determination is one of the essential norms in the contemporary international order, it has yet to be investigated within international norm literature. Unlike the static model of early constructivists, the cyclic model of international norm change demonstrates a clear framework to see how the norm of self-determination has changed over time and explains why norm structures are sometimes stable and other times volatile. / Com o surgimento do construtivismo, que valoriza fatores não materiais e variáveis ideacionais, a pesquisa de normas tornou-se o centro de interesse em estudos de Relações Internacionais. A teoria construtivista inicial é adequada para mostrar como uma norma pode ser substituída por outra, mas incapaz de explicar como uma norma se modifica. Assim, o próximo desafio para o construtivismo seria demonstrar o mecanismo de mudança de norma. O objetivo desta pesquisa é preencher uma lacuna na literatura internacional de normas. De uma perspectiva construtivista, esta pesquisa sugere um modelo cíclico de mudança internacional de normas e verifica sua plausibilidade examinando as evidências empíricas de mudança na norma internacional de autodeterminação. Embora a autodeterminação seja uma das normas essenciais na ordem internacional contemporânea, ela ainda precisa ser investigada dentro da literatura internacional de normas. Ao contrário do modelo estático dos primeiros construtivistas, o modelo cíclico da mudança internacional de normas demonstra uma estrutura clara para ver como a norma de autodeterminação mudou ao longo do tempo e explica por que as estruturas normativas são às vezes estáveis e outras voláteis.

China¡¦s behavior towards the intellectual property rights (IPR) regime is a reflection of the tug-of-war between regime and national interest. IPR, a concept foreign to Chinese culture, began to influence China following the reforms of 1978 through both external and internal pressures. This paper attempts to show how the power of international rules and national interests impacts China¡¦s IPR behavior by analyzing its attitude towards IPR negotiations, trends related to its IPR legal framework and enforcement. This analysis can be broken down into three different periods. 1. 1979-1990: Interaction between national interest and international norm. China¡¦s action of both participating in the world IPR regime and the building of a domestic IPR system was to large extent motivated by self-interest. China needed a systematic IPR framework in place to meet its new economic conditions: attracting FDI and technology transfers while protecting indigenous infant industries. However, there is little evidence that China¡¦s actions during this period showed compliance with the global IPR regime. 2. 1990-2000: Moving towards compromise. China¡¦s negotiations with the United States dominated trends in its IPR reform and reoriented China¡¦s national interests. As China¡¦s largest trade partner and hegemon in the IPR issue area, the U.S. played a strong role in making Chinese IPR laws more transparent and aligned with the international standard. For sustaining economic development, China realized it needed to create an environment friendly to foreign investors and protect its growing export industry of patented products, and Chinese leaders therefore conceded to a large part of U.S.¡¦s demands. Nonetheless, the reform mostly focused on the legal system while enforcement was overlooked, continuing the rampant IPR infringement. 3. 21st century: Compliance under the WTO regime. Through its experience in the 1990s, and its membership in the WTO, China¡¦s IPR policies in the 21st century have become more proactive and globalized, implying that China is willing to accept higher degrees of interdependence. In this period, China has strived to conform to TRIPS (Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) and has tackled its enforcement problem with a number of practical administrative and judicial policies to help reassure foreign investors and a growing amount of local IPR holders of the security of their IP. In the end however, the analysis in this paper still shows that China¡¦s current IPR protection policies still favor China¡¦s national interests over the interests of the global IPR regime. This paper finds that the global IPR regime has helped to influence a new agenda for the PRC: to pursue a knowldege-based economy as a development goal. China now intends to follow the rules of the global IPR regime. The central government's capability of enforceing IPR policy at every level of government is an important benchmark in examining China's response to the global IPR regime in the future.

La notion de souveraineté est souvent analysée, interprétée et critiquée sous un angle purement individualiste, comme appartenant à l'État. Toutefois, en raison de la pluralité des États qui caractérise le droit international, la souveraineté est une notion nécessairement pluraliste. L'analyse de la structure normative et institutionnelle de l'ordre juridique international montre effectivement que la souveraineté appartient à l'ensemble des États et signifie et assure leur statut privilégié dans cet ordre juridique. Dès lors, la souveraineté devient une qualité pour justifier les privilèges et les exclusivités des États par rapport aux autres entités de la scène internationale: tout dérive des États et tout doit nécessairement et obligatoirement passer par les États. Cependant, il existe un certain nombre de phénomènes qui affectent cette configuration état-centrique de l'ordre juridique international. Il s'agit notamment des phénomènes dits de la mondialisation qui font fi des divisions spatiales fondées sur l'organisation politique des États. Dans ce processus de mondialisation qui rend floues et in effectives les frontières étatiques, le rôle des États se trouve de plus en plus affaibli et remis en question. L'émergence de nouveaux acteurs représentatifs et des normativités alternatives est la manifestationde cette évolution qui va dans le sens d'un dépassement de la conception état-centrique du droit international et, par conséquent, d'une remise en question de la souveraineté des États. / The notion of sovereignty has often been analyzed, interpreted and criticized in purely individualistic terms and deemed to belong to the State. However, due to the plurality of States characterizing the international law, the sovereignty becomes necessarily a pluralistic notion. The analysis of the normative and institutional structure of the international legal order shows, indeed, that the sovereignty belongs to ail States and also means and ensures their prevailing status in this legal order. As a consequence, sovereignty becomes a quality for justifying the privileges and exc\usivities of State in comparison to other entities on the international scene: everything derives from the State and must also necessarily and absolutely be achieved through the State. However, there are a number of phenomena affecting this State-centric configuration of the international legal order. These are the phenomena of the globalization, which flout spatial divisions based on the politicalorganization of the States. The raIe of State has increasingly become weaker and question able in this process of globalization, which renders State borders blurry and ineffective. The emergence of new representative players and alternative normativity reflects this development which is in line with an overrun of the Statecentric concept of the international law and, consequently, calls into question the State sovereignty.