Shows how international lawyers make non-law (extra-legal, illegal and other non-legal phenomena) and why this matters in global politics today.

During armed conflict, non-State armed groups deprive individuals of their liberty. While this is not a new phenomenon, its pervasiveness is reflected by recent examples in Colombia, Libya, Syria, Ukraine, Mali and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Yet, examining these activities goes beyond its mere acknowledgment. It involves questions concerning their legality and the non-State armed groups' motivations when depriving individuals of their liberty. Drawing on his personal experiences while working for various humanitarian organizations, Ezequiel Heffes aims at elucidating how international law can be used as a protective tool in relation to individuals placed in detention by non-State armed groups. Based on case studies of selected groups and a normative and doctrinal analysis, he proposes minimum humanitarian principles applicable to those situations. By addressing a contemporary issue that touches upon a number of legal regimes, this study makes a valuable contribution to the law applicable in armed conflict.

It has never been more important to understand how international law enables and constrains international politics. By drawing together the legal theory of Lon Fuller and the insights of constructivist international relations scholars, this book articulates a pragmatic view of how international obligation is created and maintained. First, legal norms can only arise in the context of social norms based on shared understandings. Second, internal features of law, or 'criteria of legality', are crucial to law's ability to promote adherence, to inspire 'fidelity'. Third, legal norms are built, maintained or destroyed through a continuing practice of legality. Through case studies of the climate change regime, the anti-torture norm, and the prohibition on the use of force, it is shown that these three elements produce a distinctive legal legitimacy and a sense of commitment among those to whom law is addressed.

Beyond Human Rights, previously published in German and now available in English, is a historical and doctrinal study about the legal status of individuals in international law.

This book fills a major gap in the scholarly literature concerning international criminal law, comparative criminal law, and human rights law. The principle of legality (non-retroactivity of crimes and punishments and related doctrines) is fundamental to criminal law and human rights law. Yet this is the first book-length study of the status of legality in international law - in international criminal law, international human rights law, and international humanitarian law. This is also the first book to survey legality/non-retroactivity in all national constitutions, developing the patterns of implementation of legality in the various legal systems (e.g., Common Law, Civil Law, Islamic Law, Asian Law) around the world. This is a necessary book for any scholar, practitioner, and library in the area of international, criminal, comparative, human rights, or international humanitarian law.

A runner-up for the 2018 Chadwick Alger Prize, International Studies Association's International Organization Section, this provocative reassessment of the rule of law in world politics examines how and why governments use and manipulate international law in foreign policy.

Yaël Ronen analyses the international legal ramifications of illegal territorial regimes, namely the illegal annexation of territory or illegal declarations of independence, by reference to the stage of transition from an illegal territorial regime to a lawful one. Six case studies (Namibia, Zimbabwe, the Baltic States, the South African Bantustans, East Timor and northern Cyprus) are used to explore the tension between the invalidity of the illegal regime's acts and their effectiveness, with respect to the international relations of such territories, their domestic legal systems, the status of settlers and land transfers. Relying heavily on primary and previously unconsidered sources, she focuses on the international legal constraints on the post-transition regime's policy, particularly in the context of international human rights law.