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From Apology to Utopia

From Apology to Utopia The Structure of International Legal Argument

Name: From Apology to Utopia
Brand: Cambridge University Press
SKU: 9780521546966
Price: 592.54 HKD
Availability: OutOfStock
Author: Martti Koskenniemi
ISBN: 9780521546966

By Martti Koskenniemi

Cambridge University Press January 2006

Specifications

ISBN-13: 9780521546966
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Publication: January 2006
Format: Paperback
Jurisdiction: International ? Countri(es) for reference only

Details

Presents a critical view of international law as an argumentative practice that aims to ‘depoliticise’ international relations. Drawing from a range of materials, Koskenniemi demonstrates how international law becomes vulnerable to the contrasting criticisms of being either an irrelevant moralist Utopia or a manipulable façade for State interests. He examines the conflicts inherent in international law - sources, sovereignty, ‘custom’ and ‘world order’ - and shows how legal discourse about such subjects can be described in terms of a small number of argumentative rules.

This book was originally published in English in Finland in 1989 and though it quickly became a classic, it has been out of print for some years. Cambridge is proud to reissue this seminal text, together with a freshly written Epilogue in which the author both responds to critiques of the original work, and reflects on the effect and significance of his ‘deconstructive’ approach today.

Contents:: 1. Objectivity in international law: conventional dilemmas; 2. Doctrinal history: the liberal doctrine of politics and its effect on international law; 3. The structure of modern doctrines; 4. Sovereignty; 5. Sources; 6. Custom; 7. Variations of world order: the structure of international legal argument; 8. Beyond objectivism; Epilogue; Bibliography and table of cases.