Exchange of goods and ideas among nations, cross-border pollution, global warming, and international crime pose formidable questions for international law. Two respected scholars provide an intellectual framework for assessing these problems from a rational choice perspective and describe conditions under which international law succeeds or fails.

The ever-increasing exchange of goods and ideas among nations, as well as cross-border pollution, global warming, and international crime, pose urgent questions for international law. Here, two respected scholars provide an intellectual framework for assessing these pressing legal problems from a rational choice perspective. The approach assumes that states are rational, forward-looking agents which use international law to address the actions of other states that may have consequences for their own citizens, and to obtain the benefits of international cooperation. It further assumes that in the absence of a central enforcement agency—that is, a world government—international law must be self-enforcing. States must believe that if they violate international agreements, other states will retaliate. Consequently, Eric A. Posner and Alan O. Sykes devote considerable attention to the challenges of enforcing international law, which begin with the difficulties of determining what it is. In the absence of an international constitution, the sources for international law are vague. Lawyers must rely on statements contained in all manner of official documents and on simple observation of states’ behavior. This looseness leads international institutions such as the United Nations to deliver conflicting interpretations of the law’s most basic principles. The authors describe the conditions under which international law succeeds or fails, across a wide range of issues, including war crimes, human rights, international criminal law, principles of state responsibility, law of the sea, international trade regulation, and international investment law.

A comprehensive insight into the legal framework of international economic relations, comprising the law of the World Trade Organization, investment law, and international monetary law, this book highlights the context of human rights, good governance, environmental protection, development, and the role of the G20 and multinationals.

This introductory textbook explores the key legal principles and institutions that underpin the global economy. Featuring discussion of the economic rationale and social impact of the various legal regimes, Professor David Collins explores the four main pillars in international economic law: international trade, international investment, monetary relations, and development.

This book presents policymakers and scholars with an over-arching analytical model of international law, one that demonstrates the potential of international law, but also explains how policymakers should choose among different international legal structures.

Principles of International Economic Law provides a comprehensive overview of the central topics in international economic law, with an emphasis on the interplay between the different economic and political interests on both the international and domestic levels. Following recent tendencies, the book sets the classic topics of international economic law, like WTO law, investment protection, commercial law and monetary law in context with aspects of human rights, environmental protection and the legitimate claims of developing countries. The book draws a concise picture of the architecture of international economic law with all its complexities, without getting lost in fragmented details. Providing a perfect introductory text to the field of international economic law, the book thoroughly analyses legal developments within their wider political, economic, or social context. Topics covered range from codes of conduct for multinational enterprises, to the human rights implications of the exploitation of natural resources. The book demonstrates the economic foundations and economic implications of legal frameworks. It puts into profile the often complex relationship between, on the one hand, international standards on liberalization and economic rationality and, on the other, state sovereignty and national preferences. It describes the new forms of economic cooperation which have developed in recent decades, such as the growing number of transnational companies in the private sector, and forms of cooperation between states such as the G8 or G20. This fully updated second edition covers new aspects and developments including the growing importance of corporate social responsibility, mega-regional-agreements like CETA, TTIP, and TPP, trade and investment related aspects of human rights law.

There are various ways of understanding, interpreting and theorising international law. For instance, Kelsen founded a method of jurisprudence that was critical of ideology, the socalled “pure theory of law”. This is a method allowing jurists to engage with law as a subject of study in a non-political and purely “scientific” manner. As a result, international law could be regarded as a single and self-entailing system. Lasswell and McDougal developed a sociological approach to integrate the conceptualising of international society and law into the conceptualising of social process in general. Allott tried a pure jurisprudential and philosophical way of remoulding international law in a new global order. This article reviews Posner and Sykes' new book: Economic Foundations of International Law, and tries to understand whether a law and economics approach makes sense in understanding international law.