The Philosophy Of International Law

This text contains 29 cutting-edge essays by philosophers and lawyers which address the central philosophical questions about international law. Its overarching theme is the moral and political values that should guide and shape the assessment and development of international law and institutions.

Offers an accessible discussion of conceptual and moral questions on international law and advances the debate on many of these topics.

Why should sovereign states obey international law? In this groundbreaking study Fernando Tesón argues that an overlapping respect for human rights has created a moral common ground among the countries of the world. It is this common set of values rather than self-interest that ultimately provides legitimacy to international law. Using the tools of moral philosophy Tesón analyzes the concepts of sovereignty, intervention, and national interest; the contributions of social contact theory, game theory, and feminist theory; and the puzzles of self-determination and group rights.

Discover how philosophy is essential to the creation, development, application and study of international lawNew for this editionUpdated to cover recent developments in international law, including the 2008 world financial crisis and its effect on international economic and financial law, and the Obama administrations approach to international law in the war on terror Each chapter includes suggestions for further reading, including the most current sources from 2016Anthony Carty tracks the development of the foundations of the philosophies of international law, covering the natural, analytical, positivist, realist and postmodern legal traditions. You'll learn how these approaches were first conceived and how they shape the network of relationships between the signatories of international law.Key featuresExplores four areas: contemporary uncertainties; personality in international law; the existence of states and the use of force; and international economic/financial lawThe historical introduction gives you an overview of the development of the philosophy of international law, from late-scholastic natural law to the gradual dominance of legal positivism, and to the renewed importance of natural law theory in legal philosophy todayRevises the agenda for international lawyers: from internal concerns with the discipline itself outwards to the challenges of international society

Discover how philosophy is essential to the creation, development, application and study of international lawNew for this editionUpdated to cover recent developments in international law, including the 2008 world financial crisis and its effect on international economic and financial law, and the Obama administrations approach to international law in the war on terror Each chapter includes suggestions for further reading, including the most current sources from 2016Anthony Carty tracks the development of the foundations of the philosophies of international law, covering the natural, analytical, positivist, realist and postmodern legal traditions. You'll learn how these approaches were first conceived and how they shape the network of relationships between the signatories of international law.Key featuresExplores four areas: contemporary uncertainties; personality in international law; the existence of states and the use of force; and international economic/financial lawThe historical introduction gives you an overview of the development of the philosophy of international law, from late-scholastic natural law to the gradual dominance of legal positivism, and to the renewed importance of natural law theory in legal philosophy todayRevises the agenda for international lawyers: from internal concerns with the discipline itself outwards to the challenges of international society

Why should sovereign states obey international law? In this groundbreaking study Fernando Tesón argues that an overlapping respect for human rights has created a moral common ground among the countries of the world. It is this common set of values rather than self-interest that ultimately provides legitimacy to international law. Using the tools of moral philosophy Tesón analyzes the concepts of sovereignty, intervention, and national interest; the contributions of social contact theory, game theory, and feminist theory; and the puzzles of self-determination and group rights.

This book tracks the development of the emerging international legal principle of a responsibility to protect over the past two decades. It contrasts the influential version of the principle introduced by the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty in 2001 with subsequent interpretations of the responsibility to protect advocated by the United Nations through its human protection agenda, and reviews the dangers and inconsistencies inherent in both perspectives. The author demonstrates that the evolving responsibility to protect principle can be recruited to support a wide range of irreconcilable projects, from those of cosmopolitan constitutionalism to those of hegemonic international law. However, despite the dangers posed by this susceptibility to conceptual hijacking, Oman argues that the responsibility to protect, like human rights, is an essential a modern emancipatory formation. To remedy this dangerous malleability, the author advocates a third, distinctive interpretation of the responsibility to protect designed to limit its cooptation by liberal anti-pluralist and hegemonic international law agendas. Oman outlines the key features of such a minimalist conception, and explores its fit with the "RtoP" version of the responsibility to protect promoted in recent years by the UN. The author argues that two crucial features missing from the UN reading of the principle should be developed in future: an acknowledgement of the role of non-state actors as bearers of the responsibility to protect, and a recognition of the principle's legal character. Both of these aspects of the principle offer means to democratize the international law-making enterprise.

In a world full of armed conflict and human misery, global justice remains one of the most compelling missions of our time. Understanding the promises and limitations of global justice demands a careful appreciation of international law, the web of binding norms and institutions that help govern the behaviour of states and other global actors. This book provides a new interdisciplinary approach to global justice, one that integrates the work and insights of international law and contemporary ethics. It asks whether the core norms of international law are just, appraising them according to a standard of global justice derived from the fundamental values of peace and the protection of human rights. Through a combination of a careful explanation of the legal norms and philosophical argument, Ratner concludes that many international law norms meet such a standard of justice, even as distinct areas of injustice remain within the law and the verdict is still out on others. Among the subjects covered in the book are the rules on the use of force, self-determination, sovereign equality, the decision making procedures of key international organizations, the territorial scope of human rights obligations (including humanitarian intervention), and key areas of international economic law. Ultimately, the book shows how an understanding of international law's moral foundations will enrich the global justice debate, while exposing the ethical consequences of different rules.