“To Do a Great Right, Do a Little Wrong”: The Concept of Proportionality in Contemporary International Law

Proportionality as a key concept of contemporary international law has been largely misunderstood. On the one hand, it has been wrongly regarded as a “third space” between law and politics, as a more trans- parent and at the same time a more controllable alternative to other types of legal discourses. On the other hand, proportionality does not amount to unlimited subjectivity and pure politics. In fact, it oscillates between law and politics, trying to reconcile the two yet constantly falling into one or another. The article suggests a new approach to proportionality as an argumentative practice and studies the dialectical structure of proportionality discourse