How do formal international institutions change and adjust to new circumstances? The conventional wisdom in International Relations (IR), outlined by rational design, is that the answer lies in designed flexibility, which allows states to adjust agreements. Drawing on rich but disparate literatures across subfields of political science — especially constructivism and historical institutionalism — we propose an alternative, which we call “emergent flexibility.” Emergent flexibility is a property of international institutions that is not intentionally crafted by rule-makers when a rule is formally established, but is subsequently discovered, activated, and accessed by creative rule-users in ways unintended by designers. Rich case studies trace how rule-users have accessed emergent flexibility through the legal interpretive strategy of subsequent practice to change rigid rules of the UN Charter and the European Convention on Human Rights. A key implication of emergent flexibility is that, contrary to rational design expectations, international institutions designed to be rigid can adjust to unforeseen circumstances even in the absence of formal redesign, allowing cooperation to continue. The broadening of flexibility from designed to emergent reveals the politics of flexibility between formal design moments, provides a more nuanced notion of intentionality, and equips us to better address fundamental positive and normative questions of institutional development.

中文翻译：

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制度发展中的新兴灵活性：国际规则如何真正改变

正式的国际机构如何改变和适应新情况？合理设计概述了国际关系（IR）的传统观点，那就是答案在于设计的灵活性，这种灵活性允许各国调整协议。我们利用政治学各个子领域（尤其是建构主义和历史制度主义）的丰富但迥异的文献，提出了一种替代方案，我们称之为“新兴的灵活性”。新兴的灵活性是国际机构的财产，当规则正式制定时，规则制定者并没有故意制定这些规则，而是后来创造性的规则用户以设计师所不希望的方式发现，激活和访问了规则。丰富的案例研究追踪了规则使用者如何通过后续实践的法律解释策略来改变紧急情况，以改变《联合国宪章》和《欧洲人权公约》的严格规则。出现灵活性的一个关键含义是，与合理的设计期望相反，设计成僵化的国际机构即使在没有正式重新设计的情况下也可以适应不可预见的情况，从而可以继续进行合作。从设计到出现的灵活性的扩展揭示了正式设计时刻之间的灵活性的政治意义，提供了意图性更微妙的概念，并使我们能够更好地解决机构发展的基本积极和规范性问题。出现灵活性的一个关键含义是，与合理的设计期望相反，设计成僵化的国际机构即使在没有正式重新设计的情况下也可以适应不可预见的情况，从而可以继续进行合作。从设计到出现的灵活性的扩展揭示了正式设计时刻之间的灵活性的政治意义，提供了意图性更微妙的概念，并使我们能够更好地解决机构发展的基本积极和规范性问题。出现灵活性的一个关键含义是，与合理的设计期望相反，设计成僵化的国际机构即使在没有正式重新设计的情况下也可以适应不可预见的情况，从而可以继续进行合作。从设计到出现的灵活性的扩展揭示了正式设计时刻之间的灵活性的政治意义，提供了意图性更微妙的概念，并使我们能够更好地解决机构发展的基本积极和规范性问题。