United States Hegemony and the Foundations of International Law

United States Hegemony and the Foundations of International Law
Author: Michael Byers
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2008-01-21
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9780521050869

Twelve leading scholars of international law and international relations consider whether the current strength of the United States is leading to change in the international legal system. This book demonstrates that the effects of U.S. domination of the foundations of international law are real, but also intensely complex. The volume stimulates debate about the role of the United States in international law and interests scholars of international law and international relations, government officials and international organizations.

United States Hegemony and the Foundations of International Law

United States Hegemony and the Foundations of International Law
Author: Michael Byers
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 551
Release: 2003-05-29
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1139436635

Successive hegemonic powers have shaped the foundations of international law. This book examines whether the predominance of the United States is leading to foundational change in the international legal system. A range of leading scholars in international law and international relations consider six foundational areas that could be undergoing change, including international community, sovereign equality, the law governing the use of force, and compliance. The authors demonstrate that the effects of US predominance on the foundations of international law are real, but also intensely complex. This complexity is due, in part, to a multitude of actors exercising influential roles. And it is also due to the continued vitality and remaining functionality of the international legal system itself. This system limits the influence of individual states, while stretching and bending in response to the changing geopolitics of our time.

A Companion to U.S. Foreign Relations

A Companion to U.S. Foreign Relations
Author: Christopher R. W. Dietrich
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 1542
Release: 2020-03-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 1119459699

Covers the entire range of the history of U.S. foreign relations from the colonial period to the beginning of the 21st century. A Companion to U.S. Foreign Relations is an authoritative guide to past and present scholarship on the history of American diplomacy and foreign relations from its seventeenth century origins to the modern day. This two-volume reference work presents a collection of historiographical essays by prominent scholars. The essays explore three centuries of America’s global interactions and the ways U.S. foreign policies have been analyzed and interpreted over time. Scholars offer fresh perspectives on the history of U.S. foreign relations; analyze the causes, influences, and consequences of major foreign policy decisions; and address contemporary debates surrounding the practice of American power. The Companion covers a wide variety of methodologies, integrating political, military, economic, social and cultural history to explore the ideas and events that shaped U.S. diplomacy and foreign relations and continue to influence national identity. The essays discuss topics such as the links between U.S. foreign relations and the study of ideology, race, gender, and religion; Native American history, expansion, and imperialism; industrialization and modernization; domestic and international politics; and the United States’ role in decolonization, globalization, and the Cold War. A comprehensive approach to understanding the history, influences, and drivers of U.S. foreign relation, this indispensable resource: Examines significant foreign policy events and their subsequent interpretations Places key figures and policies in their historical, national, and international contexts Provides background on recent and current debates in U.S. foreign policy Explores the historiography and primary sources for each topic Covers the development of diverse themes and methodologies in histories of U.S. foreign policy Offering scholars, teachers, and students unmatched chronological breadth and analytical depth, A Companion to U.S. Foreign Relations: Colonial Era to the Present is an important contribution to scholarship on the history of America’s interactions with the world.

International Internet Law

International Internet Law
Author: Joanna Kulesza
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2012-03-15
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1136337946

This book discusses the international legal issues underlying Internet Governance and proposes an international solution to its problems. The book encompasses a wide spectrum of current debate surrounding the governance of the internet and focuses on the areas and issues which urgently require attention from the international community in order to sustain the proper functioning of the global network that forms the foundation of our information fuelled society. Among the topics discussed are international copyright protection, state responsibility for cyber-attacks (cyberterrorism), and international on-line privacy protection. Taking a comparative approach by examining how different jurisdictions such as the United States, the European Union, China and Singapore have attempted various solutions to the problem of Internet Governance, the author offers a practical solution to the problem and is a proponent of International Internet Law. Kulesza suggests that just as in the case of International Environmental Law, an Internet Framework Convention could shape the starting point for international cooperation and lead to a clear, contractual division of state jurisdictional competences. International Internet Law is of particular interest to legal scholars engaged with the current challenges in international law and international relations, as well as students of law, international relations and political science. The issues discussed in the book are also relevant to journalists and other media professionals, facing the challenges of analyzing current international developments in cyberspace.

Foundations of World Order

Foundations of World Order
Author: Francis Anthony Boyle
Publisher: Duke University Press
Total Pages: 236
Release: 1999
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9780822323648

One volume of multi-volume history of international law.

The Hidden History of International Law in the Americas

The Hidden History of International Law in the Americas
Author: Dr. Juan Pablo Scarfi
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2017-03-15
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0190622369

International law has played a crucial role in the construction of imperial projects. Yet within the growing field of studies about the history of international law and empire, scholars have seldom considered this complicit relationship in the Americas. The Hidden History of International Law in the Americas offers the first exploration of the deployment of international law for the legitimization of U.S. ascendancy as an informal empire in Latin America. This book explores the intellectual history of a distinctive idea of American international law in the Americas, focusing principally on the evolution of the American Institute of International Law (AIIL). This organization was created by U.S. and Chilean jurists James Brown Scott and Alejandro Alvarez in Washington D.C. for the construction, development, and codification of international law across the Americas. Juan Pablo Scarfi examines the debates sparked by the AIIL over American international law, intervention and non-intervention, Pan-Americanism, the codification of public and private international law and the nature and scope of the Monroe Doctrine, as well as the international legal thought of Scott, Alvarez, and a number of jurists, diplomats, politicians, and intellectuals from the Americas. Professor Scarfi argues that American international law, as advanced primarily by the AIIL, was driven by a U.S.-led imperial aspiration of civilizing Latin America through the promotion of the international rule of law. By providing a convincing critical account of the legal and historical foundations of the Inter-American System, this book will stimulate debate among international lawyers, IR scholars, political scientists, and intellectual historians.

Comparative International Law

Comparative International Law
Author: Anthea Roberts
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 641
Release: 2018
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0190697571

Explains that international law is not a monolith but can encompass on-going contestation, in which states set forth competing interpretations Maps and explains the cross-country differences in international legal norms in various fields of international law and their application and interpretation in different geographic regions Organized into three broad thematic sections of conceptual matters, domestic institutions and comparative international law, and comparing approaches across issue-areas Chapters authored by contributors who include top international law and comparative law scholars all from diverse backgrounds, experience, and perspectives.

Defending the Society of States

Defending the Society of States
Author: Jason Ralph
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2007-05-31
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0191526789

This book is among the first to address the issues raised by the International Criminal Court (ICC) from an International Relations perspective. By clearly outlining a theoretical framework to interpret these issues, Ralph makes a significant contribution to the English School's study of international society. More specifically, he offers a concise definition of 'world society' and thus helps to resolve a longstanding problem in international theory. This groundbreaking conceptual work is supported by an in-depth empirical analysis of American opposition to the ICC. Ralph goes beyond the familiar arguments related to national interests and argues that the Court has exposed the extent to which American notions of accountability are tied to the nation-state. Where other democracies are willing to renegotiate their social contract because they see themselves as part of world society, the US protects its particular contract with 'the people' because it offers a means of distinguishing America and its democracy from the rest of the world. This 'sovereigntist', or more accurately 'Americanist', influence is further illustrated in chapters on the sources of law, universal jurisdiction, transatlantic relations and US policy on international humanitarian law in the war on terror. The book concludes by evoking E.H. Carr's criticism of those great powers who claim that a harmony exists between their particular interests and those of wider society. It also recalls his argument that great powers sometimes need to compromise and in this context, Ralph argues that support for the ICC is a more effective means of fulfilling America's purpose and a less costly sacrifice than that demanded by the 'Americanist' policy of nation-building.

The Concept of Unity in Public International Law

The Concept of Unity in Public International Law
Author: Mario Prost
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 226
Release: 2012-03-15
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1847319165

'Fragmentation' has become a defining, albeit controversial, metaphor of international law scholarship in the era of globalisation. Some scholars see it as a new development, others as history repeating itself; some approach it as a technical issue and some as the reflection of deeper political struggles. But there is near-consensus about the fact that the established vision of international law as a unitary whole is under threat. At the core of the fragmentation debate lies the concept of unity, but this is hardly ever rationalised and is more assumed than explained. Its meaning remains vague and intuitive. 'The Concept of Unity in Public International Law' attempts to dispel that vagueness by exploring the various possible meanings of the concept of unity in international law. However, eschewing one grand theory of unity, it identifies and compares five candidates. Intentionally pluralistic in its outlook, the book does not engage in normative arguments about whether international law is or should be unitary but seeks to show instead that the concept of unity is contested and that discourses on fragmentation are necessarily contingent. The thesis on which the book is based won the 2009 Prize for best doctoral thesis from the Association des professeurs de droit du Québec.

Cynical International Law?

Cynical International Law?
Author: Björnstjern Baade
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2020-11-28
Genre: Law
ISBN: 3662621282

Analysing international law through the prism of “cynicism” makes it possible to look beyond overt disregard for international law, currently discussed in terms of a backlash or crisis. The concept allows to analyse and criticise structural features and specific uses of international law that seem detrimental to international law in a more subtle way. Unlike its ancient predecessor, cynicism nowadays refers not to a bold critique of power but to uses and abuses of international law that pursue one-sided interests tacitly disregarding the legal structure applied. From this point of view, the contributions critically reflect on the theoretical foundations of international law, in particular its relationship to power, actors such as the International Law Commission and international judges, and specific fields, including international human rights, humanitarian, criminal, tax and investment law.