Conflict Sociology and Contestation

Abstract Contestations of international norms and institutions have intensified lately, ranging from conflicts about the appropriate application of norms and the direction of institutional policies to the legitimacy of the norms and institutions as such. However, while most conflicts can be easily settled within established procedures and settings, some escalate to a degree that has lasting negative effects on the norms or institutions in question, or even on the international order as such. This chapter draws on the sociology of conflict and theories of democracy to analyze under which conditions even deep contestation can remain productive within international orders, and illustrates this with a case study on contestation of the International Criminal Court (ICC).