Legal Visions Of The 21st Century Essays In Honour Of Judge Christopher Weeramantry

- Wouter de Vos.

Legal Visions of the 21st Century honours Judge Christopher Weeramantry by carefully culling a range of contributions to explore the broad themes that have been the subject of Judge Weeramantry s career. Judge Weeramantry has written distinguished books on Roman Dutch Law, Jurisprudence, the relationship between Law and Science, International Law and International Human Rights Law. The coverage of Legal Visions of the 21st Century includes: - Jurisprudence and Comparative Law; - Human Rights and Bioethics; - Judging and the Judiciary; - fascinating aspects of general International Law and the International Court of Justice; and - 'appreciations' - the final selection of the volume, which conveys an idea of the role Judge Weeramantry played in the offices he held prior to his appointment to the International Court of Justice. In the manner of a true legal discussion, the essays reflect a variety of opinions, including those that oppose the views of the honoree. Anyone interested in current intellectual challenges in international law will want to read and re-read every section of this compelling work.

How can Third World experiences of colonialism and statehood be expressed within the confines of the International Court of Justice? How has the discourse of international law developed to reflect postcolonial realities of ‘universal’ statehood? In a close and critical reading of four territorial disputes spanning the Arab World, Burgis explores the extent to which international law can be used to speak for and speak to non-European experiences of authority over territory. The book draws on recent, critical international legal scholarship to question the ability of contemporary, international adjudication to address Third World grievances from the past. A comparative analysis of the cases suggests that international law remains a discourse only capable of capturing a limited range of non-European experiences during and after colonialism.

This book deals with the transformation of the international legal system into a new world order. Looking at concepts and principles, processes and emerging problems, it examines the impact of global forces on international law. In so doing, it identifies a unified set of legal rules and processes from the great variety of state practice and jurisprudence. The work develops a new framework to examine the key elements of the global legal system, termed the 'four pillars of global law': verticalization, legality, integration and collective guarantees. The study provides an in-depth analysis of the differences between traditional international law and the new principles and processes along which the universal society and world power are organized and how this is related to domestic power. The book addresses important changes in key legal issues; it reconstructs a complex legal framework, and the emergence of a new international order that has still not been studied in depth, providing a compass that will prove a useful resource for students, researchers and policy makers within the field of law and with an interest in international relations.

Identifies the major weaknesses in the current United Nations system and proposes fundamental reforms to address each. This title is also available as Open Access.

Imperial Justice explores the imperial control of judicial governance and the adjudication of colonial difference in British Africa. Focusing on the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council and the colonial regional Appeal Courts for West Africa and East Africa, it examines how judicial discourses of native difference and imperial universalism in local disputes influenced practices of power in colonial settings and shaped an evolving jurisprudence of Empire. Arguing that the Imperial Appeal Courts were key sites where colonial legal modernity was fashioned, the book examines the tensions that permeated the colonial legal system such as the difficulty of upholding basic standards of British justice while at the same time allowing for local customary divergence which was thought essential to achieving that justice. The modernizing mission of British justice could only truly be achieved through recognition of local exceptionality and difference. Natives who appealed to the Courts of Empire were entitled to the same standards of justice as their 'civilized' colonists, yet the boundaries of racial, ethnic, and cultural difference somehow had to be recognized and maintained in the adjudicatory process. Meeting these divergent goals required flexibility in colonial law-making as well as in the administration of justice. In the paradox of integration and differentiation, imperial power and local cultures were not always in conflict but were sometimes complementary and mutually reinforcing. The book draws attention not only to the role of Imperial Appeal Courts in the colonies but also to the reciprocal place of colonized peoples in shaping the processes and outcomes of imperial justice. A valuable addition to British colonial literature, this book places Africa in a central role, and examines the role of the African colonies in the shaping of British Imperial jurisprudence.

Robbie Jennings came from Idle, an industrial village in Yorkshire; but he was never an idle man. His career was a ‘story of the unforeseeable, even improbable, advance to high position and worldwide reputation of a straightforward man of simple origins’ (from his entry in the ODNB by Sir Franklin Berman). Robbie achieved this eminence through academic success, experience abroad, service in military intelligence, years of teaching at Cambridge and the Inns of Court, and as counsel in major international border disputes. Included in this book are many passages of his own writings: his entertaining and perceptive observations on his travels, and many comments on legal problems. He is remembered by former pupils and colleagues from around the world for his wisdom, humanity and humour. His private passions were for the Lake District, for music, cricket and animals; and above all, for his family. Written by Robbie’s wife and close companion for half a century, this book provides for the general reader some idea of the scope and effectiveness of international law, with Robbie’s own comments on its continuous development.

Since 1947, Stephen M. Schwebel has written some 200 articles and book reviews on topics of international law, international arbitration and international relations. This volume brings together thirty-two of the legal articles and commentaries written since the first volume of his essays was published in 1994. The essays analyze contentious issues of international arbitration and international law such as the place of preparatory work in interpreting treaties, the role of a judge of the nationality of a party to a case sitting in judgment in the International Court of Justice, and the meaning of the term 'investment' in ICSID jurisprudence. Together with his unofficial writings, his judicial opinions are catalogued in the list of publications with which this volume concludes.