Expanding upon the normative position of co-progressiveness elaborated in Towards an International Law of Co-progressiveness (Martinus Nijhoff, 2004), this volume explores membership, leadership, and responsibility in the international system and how these matters reflect and inform international law. Issues discussed include: (1) the recognition and role of States, civilizations, and regions in the international system and how these entities are influenced by factors such as declarations of independence, intrinsic and instrumental values, diversity, and public opinion; (2) the distribution of power among States, its legitimacy, and the consequent influence this distribution has on the international system and world politics; and (3) member responsibility for acts of international organizations as well as the possibility of establishing and enforcing universal jurisdiction as a tool for implementing responsibility across the world.

Centered on progressiveness, these essays rigorously address some philosophical, conceptual and structural issues relating to the international legal system, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the international criminal tribunals. These include: the concept of the international law of co-progressiveness, opinio juris and customary international law, the rule of law, the interpretation of the ICJ Statute, law and expedience at the ICJ, the relationship between the International Criminal Court and the Security Council, the definition of crimes against humanity, guilty plea fairness, defenses to international crimes, constitutions of international organizations, September 11 and international law, international experiment in national constitution-making, discretionary function and foreign sovereign immunities, and the concept of human rights in Asia. This book is valuable to critical thinkers and scholars in international law and relations, policy-makers and international judges, practitioners and NGO advocates. This collection includes fourteen essays both new and previously published in fine journals such as European JIL (Oxford), ICLQ (Oxford), German YIL, Max Planck YUNL, Columbia LR, Leiden JIL (Cambridge) and Chinese JIL.

Centered on progressiveness, these essays rigorously address some philosophical, conceptual and structural issues relating to the international legal system, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the international criminal tribunals. These include: the concept of the international law of co-progressiveness, opinio juris and customary international law, the rule of law, the interpretation of the ICJ Statute, law and expedience at the ICJ, the relationship between the International Criminal Court and the Security Council, the definition of crimes against humanity, guilty plea fairness, defenses to international crimes, constitutions of international organizations, September 11 and international law, international experiment in national constitution-making, discretionary function and foreign sovereign immunities, and the concept of human rights in Asia. This book is valuable to critical thinkers and scholars in international law and relations, policy-makers and international judges, practitioners and NGO advocates. This collection includes fourteen essays both new and previously published in fine journals such as European JIL (Oxford), ICLQ (Oxford), German YIL, Max Planck YUNL, Columbia LR, Leiden JIL (Cambridge) and Chinese JIL.

This rich and remarkable volume offers an overview of the most important schools, movements and trends which make up the theoretical landscape of contemporary international law, as well as the works of over 500 authors. It moves beyond generalization and examines how the relevant literature deals with the basic issues of the international legal system, such as international obligations, legitimacy, compliance, unity and universality, the rule of law, human rights, use of force and economics. It offers insights into the addressees (the state, international organizations, individuals and other private persons), and the construction of international law, including law-making, the relationship between norms, and interpretation. Moreover, it widens the discourse by addressing old, yet enduring, as well as new concerns about the functioning of the international legal system, and presents views of non-international lawyers and political scientists regarding that system. It is a valuable analysis for researchers, students, and practitioners.

This book addresses the disparity between positive non-treaty law and its scholarly assessment in the area of moral concepts, understood as altruistic as opposed to reciprocal legal obligations. It shows how scholars are generously willing to assert the existence of a rule of international law, thereby moving further away from actual state practice, not taking into account the factors of legal rhetoric and the core survival interests of the state in the formation of custom and general principles of law. The main argument is that such moral concepts can simply not manifest themselves as non-treaty sources of international law from a dogmatic perspective. The reason is the inherent connection between the formation of the non-treaty sources of international law and state interest that makes it difficult, if not impossible, to assess state practice or opinio juris in the case of altruistic obligations. The book further demonstrates this finding by looking at two cases in point: Human rights and humanitarian exceptions to the prohibition of force. As opposed to the majority of existing works on the subject, State Interest and the Sources of International Law takes a bigger-picture approach to a number of distinct problems in international law scholarship by looking at the building blocks of international relations on the one hand, and merging this with sources doctrine on the other. It will be of interest to researchers, academics, and students in the fields of international law, human rights, international relations, political science, legal philosophy, and legal theory.

This landmark publication in the field of international law delivers expert assessment of new developments in the important work of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) from a team of renowned editors and commentators.The ICJ is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations and plays a central role in both the peaceful settlement of international disputes and the development of international law. This comprehensive Commentary on the Statute of the International Court of Justice, now in its third edition, analyses in detail not only the Statute of the Court itself but also the related provisions of the United Nations Charter as well as the relevant provisions of the Court's Rules of Procedure. Six years after the publication of the second edition, the third edition of the Commentary embraces current events before the International Court of Justice as well as before other courts and tribunals relevant for the interpretation and application of its Statute.The Commentary provides a comprehensive overview and analysis of all legal questions and issues the Court has had to address in the past, and looks forward to those it will have to address in the future. It illuminates the central issues of procedure and substance that the Court and counsel appearing before it face in their day-to-day work. In addition to commentary covering all of the articles of the Statute of the ICJ, plus the relevant articles of the Charter of the United Nations, the book includes two scene-setting chapters: Historical Introduction and General Principles of Procedural Law, as well as important and instructive chapters on Counter-Claims, Discontinuation and Withdrawal, and Evidentiary Issues.

Significant use has been made of the jurisprudence of the International Court of Justice because it is the principle judicial organ of the world's most universal international organization, the United Nations. Moreover, article 103 of the Charter of the United Nations makes the obligations in this treaty superior any other treaty obligations into which States may enter. The Dictionary of Public International Law contains a chronology, an introduction, glossary of Foreign Terms, tables of Treaties and Cases, an extensive bibliography, and an index. The dictionary section has over 400 cross-referenced entries on significant persons, important treaties and conventions, organizations and tribunals, and important cases and issues they have dealt with. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about international law.