This groundbreaking book uses the idea of experience to investigate the various ways in which international organizations are understood and captured by judges, legal practitioners, legal researchers, legal theorists, and thinkers of global governance. Adopting a unique phenomenological approach, Jean d’Aspremont questions the key patterns of thought that inform the legal practice of international organizations, arguing that said organizations are the product of five specific experiences: affection, insulation, edification, restriction, and conciliation. Through this critical lens, d’Aspremont highlights the limits of the current conceptualizations of international organizations which populate legal practice and legal literature. In doing so, the book crucially develops contemporary discourse on how international lawyers build their claims about the status, rights, duties, responsibilities, failures and falls of international organizations; and assesses how international organizations are thought about in relation to international law, international relations and studies of global governance. Insightful and thought-provoking, this distinct approach will be a fundamental resource for researchers, scholars and theorists in law and politics, legal theory, international relations and public international law. Professionals and practitioners working in these sectors will also find this book an enlightening read.

Inspiring and distinctive, After Meaning provides a radical challenge to the way in which international law is thought and practised. Jean d'Aspremont asserts that the words and texts of international law, as forms, never carry or deliver meaning but, instead, perpetually defer meaning and ensure it is nowhere found within international legal discourse. In challenging the dominant meaning-centrism of the international legal discourse and shedding light on the sovereignty of forms, this book promotes a radical new attitude towards textuality in international law. The author offers new perspectives on interpretation, critique, history, comparison, translation and referencing, inviting international lawyers to reinvent their engagement with these discourses. Chapters define meaning and form in international law, explore deferral of meaning and make an unprecedented use of post-structuralist theory to rethink international law. After Meaning will be an essential reference point for legal scholars, researchers and students who seek to understand a different way of thinking about meaning in international law. The book's engagement with post-structuralism will also prove beneficial to anyone interested in the philosophy of language and literary theory.

Epistemic Forces in International Law presents a comprehensive examination of the methodological choices made by international lawyers and provides a discerning insight into the ways in which lawyers shape their arguments to secure validation within the international legal community.International law is defined in this book as an argumentative practice, articulated around a set of foundational doctrines and deployed through rhetorical techniques. Taking an original approach, Jean d'Aspremont focuses on five key foundational doctrines of international legal theory and five key techniques deployed in international legal argumentation. He argues that mastering these foundational principles and argumentative procedures shapes the discourse of international lawyers as much as these discourses shape these foundational doctrines and techniques of legal argumentation. This book is a pertinent contribution to the methodology and theory of international law, illustrating the rationale of the choices made by lawyers in the doctrines of statehood, sources, law-making, international organisations and effectivity. This accessible reflection on the conceptual, theoretical and methodological perspectives of international law will be a salient point of reference for legal academics, researchers and practitioners alike.

'This volume offers an indispensable guide to the concepts that have shaped the life of international law in theory and practice. With contributions from a stellar cast of innovative scholars, Concepts for International Law reveals the power of international legal language and the worlds it makes possible.' - Anne Orford, Melbourne Law School, Australia 'Visiting this collection brings to mind an elegant small Euro-Atlantic art museum from a single period, eclectic but coherent and unified by the imaginative taste of the curators. The entries are fine exemplars rather than comprehensive, the contributors respectably avant-garde and many already very well known or will be, the whole engagingly luminous.' - Benedict Kingsbury, New York University, School of Law, US Concepts allow us to know, understand, think, do and change international law. This book, with sixty chapters by leading scholars, provides a nuanced guide to those concepts of historical significance for international law, as well as those that have become central to how we think about the discipline. In select cases this book also offers some new concepts, seeking to address familiar concerns that have not been fully articulated within the discipline. This unique book is the first expansive exploration of concepts that have become historically central to the discipline. It allows us to appreciate how order, struggle and change play out in international law and legal thought, and how these concerns of power implicate ethical considerations. Embracing a wide range of historical and theoretical approaches, this book hopes to ignite a renewed, fertile engagement between our concepts and the contemporary, precarious, conditions of international legal life. Thought-provoking, original and engaging, this book is essential reading for researchers, postgraduates and doctoral students in international law, legal history and legal theory. Academics in international relations, history, sociology and political thought will also find this an essential read. Contributors include: P. Allott, A. Anghie, A. Bianchi, L. Bonadiman, F.L. Bordin, C. Broelmann, B. Cali, P. Capps, H. Charlesworth, J.K. Cogan, H.G. Cohen, R. Collins, J. d'Aspremont, M. Goldmann, G. Gordon, J. Haskell, K.J. Heller, G.I. Hernandez, F. Hoffmann, D.B. Hollis, O.U. Ince, V. Jeutner, F. Johns, O. Kessler, J. Klabbers, R. Knox, N. Krisch, V. Kumar, M.M. Mbengue, F. Megret, T. Meyer, C.A. Miles, S. Moyn, S. Neff, J. Nijman, A. Nollkaemper, U. OEszu, A. Peters, M. Prost, Y. Radi, N.M. Rajkovic, A. Rasulov, W. Rech, F.D. Reis, C. Ryngaert, P. Schlag, I. Scobbie, M. Shahabuddin, G. Simpson, S. Singh, T. Skouteris, U. Soirila, T. Sparks, C.J. Tams, A.A.C. Trindade, N. Tzouvala, A. van Mulligen, I. Venzke, G. Verdirame, J. von Bernstorff, I. Wuerth

The essays populating these two volumes provide a comprehensive account of existing scholarly debates on the history and theory of international law. This authoritative collection, with contributions by leading academics, covers a wide range of important topics such as primitive legal scholarship, medieval law and the Grotian Tradition. With subtopics including the markers, heroes and making of international law, and an original introduction by the editor, this extensive collection will appeal to a wide variety of researchers in the field of legal history and theory, as well as students and scholars alike.

The international legal system has weathered sweeping changes over the last decade as new participants have emerged. International law-making and law-enforcement processes have become increasingly multi-layered with unprecedented numbers of non-State actors, including individuals, insurgents, multinational corporations and even terrorist groups, being involved. This growth in the importance of non-State actors at the law-making and law-enforcement levels has generated a lot of new scholarly studies on the topic. However, while it remains uncontested that non-State actors are now playing an important role on the international plane, albeit in very different ways, international legal scholarship has remained riddled by controversy regarding the status of these new actors in international law. This collection features contributions by renowned scholars, each of whom focuses on a particular theory or tradition of international law, a region, an institutional regime or a particular subject-matter, and considers how that perspective impacts on our understanding of the role and status of non-State actors. The book takes a critical approach as it seeks to gauge the extent to which each conception and understanding of international law is instrumental in the perception of non-State actors. In doing so the volume provides a wide panorama of all the contemporary legal issues arising in connection with the growing role of non-state actors in international-law making and international law-enforcement processes.

Epistemic Forces in International Law presents a comprehensive examination of the methodological choices made by international lawyers and provides a discerning insight into the ways in which lawyers shape their arguments to secure validation within the international legal community.International law is defined in this book as an argumentative practice, articulated around a set of foundational doctrines and deployed through rhetorical techniques. Taking an original approach, Jean d'Aspremont focuses on five key foundational doctrines of international legal theory and five key techniques deployed in international legal argumentation. He argues that mastering these foundational principles and argumentative procedures shapes the discourse of international lawyers as much as these discourses shape these foundational doctrines and techniques of legal argumentation. This book is a pertinent contribution to the methodology and theory of international law, illustrating the rationale of the choices made by lawyers in the doctrines of statehood, sources, law-making, international organisations and effectivity. This accessible reflection on the conceptual, theoretical and methodological perspectives of international law will be a salient point of reference for legal academics, researchers and practitioners alike.

The international legal system has weathered sweeping changes over the last decade as new participants have emerged. International law-making and law-enforcement processes have become increasingly multi-layered with unprecedented numbers of non-State actors, including individuals, insurgents, multinational corporations and even terrorist groups, being involved. This growth in the importance of non-State actors at the law-making and law-enforcement levels has generated a lot of new scholarly studies on the topic. However, while it remains uncontested that non-State actors are now playing an important role on the international plane, albeit in very different ways, international legal scholarship has remained riddled by controversy regarding the status of these new actors in international law.

This collection features contributions by renowned scholars, each of whom focuses on a particular theory or tradition of international law, a region, an institutional regime or a particular subject-matter, and considers how that perspective impacts on our understanding of the role and status of non-State actors. The book takes a critical approach as it seeks to gauge the extent to which each conception and understanding of international law is instrumental in the perception of non-State actors. In doing so the volume provides a wide panorama of all the contemporary legal issues arising in connection with the growing role of non-state actors in international-law making and international law-enforcement processes.

'This volume offers an indispensable guide to the concepts that have shaped the life of international law in theory and practice. With contributions from a stellar cast of innovative scholars, Concepts for International Law reveals the power of international legal language and the worlds it makes possible.' - Anne Orford, Melbourne Law School, Australia 'Visiting this collection brings to mind an elegant small Euro-Atlantic art museum from a single period, eclectic but coherent and unified by the imaginative taste of the curators. The entries are fine exemplars rather than comprehensive, the contributors respectably avant-garde and many already very well known or will be, the whole engagingly luminous.' - Benedict Kingsbury, New York University, School of Law, US Concepts allow us to know, understand, think, do and change international law. This book, with sixty chapters by leading scholars, provides a nuanced guide to those concepts of historical significance for international law, as well as those that have become central to how we think about the discipline. In select cases this book also offers some new concepts, seeking to address familiar concerns that have not been fully articulated within the discipline. This unique book is the first expansive exploration of concepts that have become historically central to the discipline. It allows us to appreciate how order, struggle and change play out in international law and legal thought, and how these concerns of power implicate ethical considerations. Embracing a wide range of historical and theoretical approaches, this book hopes to ignite a renewed, fertile engagement between our concepts and the contemporary, precarious, conditions of international legal life. Thought-provoking, original and engaging, this book is essential reading for researchers, postgraduates and doctoral students in international law, legal history and legal theory. Academics in international relations, history, sociology and political thought will also find this an essential read. Contributors include: P. Allott, A. Anghie, A. Bianchi, L. Bonadiman, F.L. Bordin, C. Broelmann, B. Cali, P. Capps, H. Charlesworth, J.K. Cogan, H.G. Cohen, R. Collins, J. d'Aspremont, M. Goldmann, G. Gordon, J. Haskell, K.J. Heller, G.I. Hernandez, F. Hoffmann, D.B. Hollis, O.U. Ince, V. Jeutner, F. Johns, O. Kessler, J. Klabbers, R. Knox, N. Krisch, V. Kumar, M.M. Mbengue, F. Megret, T. Meyer, C.A. Miles, S. Moyn, S. Neff, J. Nijman, A. Nollkaemper, U. OEszu, A. Peters, M. Prost, Y. Radi, N.M. Rajkovic, A. Rasulov, W. Rech, F.D. Reis, C. Ryngaert, P. Schlag, I. Scobbie, M. Shahabuddin, G. Simpson, S. Singh, T. Skouteris, U. Soirila, T. Sparks, C.J. Tams, A.A.C. Trindade, N. Tzouvala, A. van Mulligen, I. Venzke, G. Verdirame, J. von Bernstorff, I. Wuerth

Addressing some of the most perilous, controversial issues in international law and governance, this volume brings together legal scholars from diverse geographic, personal and scholarly perspectives. They reflect on the pervasive feeling of crisis in the world today and share their views on the possibilities and limits of the international legal architecture and its expert communities in shaping the world of tomorrow. What exactly is this feeling that the contemporary international legal architecture is at a tipping point? What do these possible risks expose about the fragility and limits of our current conceptual and institutional order? What commitments drive our hopes and anxieties? Authors explore these questions across a wide range of possible tipping points and offer readers a unique snapshot of the lived experience of what it means to be an expert engaged right now in international law and governance. Each chapter covers both theory and practice in analysing a current problem.

International law is not merely a set of rules or processes, but is a professional activity practised by a diversity of figures, including scholars, judges, counsel, teachers, legal advisers and activists. Individuals may, in different contexts, play more than one of these roles, and the interactions between them are illuminating of the nature of international law itself. This collection of innovative, multidisciplinary and self-reflective essays reveals a bilateral process whereby, on the one hand, the professionalisation of international law informs discourses about the law, and, on the other hand, discourses about the law inform the professionalisation of the discipline. Intended to promote a dialogue between practice and scholarship, this book is a must-read for all those engaged in the profession of international law.

International Law as a Belief System considers how we construct international legal discourses and the self-referentiality at the centre of all legal arguments about international law. It explores how the fundamental doctrines (such as sources, responsibility, statehood, personality, interpretation and jus cogens) constrain legal reasoning by inventing their own origin and dictating the nature of their functioning. In this innovative work, d'Aspremont argues that these processes constitute the mark of a belief system. This book invites international lawyers to temporarily suspend some of their understandings about the fundamental doctrines they adhere to in their professional activities. It aims to provide readers with new tools to reinvent the thinking about international law and combines theory and practice to offer insights that are valuable for both theorists and practitioners.

International Law as a Belief System considers how we construct international legal discourses and the self-referentiality at the centre of all legal arguments about international law. It explores how the fundamental doctrines (such as sources, responsibility, statehood, personality, interpretation and jus cogens) constrain legal reasoning by inventing their own origin and dictating the nature of their functioning. In this innovative work, d'Aspremont argues that these processes constitute the mark of a belief system. This book invites international lawyers to temporarily suspend some of their understandings about the fundamental doctrines they adhere to in their professional activities. It aims to provide readers with new tools to reinvent the thinking about international law and combines theory and practice to offer insights that are valuable for both theorists and practitioners.

International Legal Positivism in a Post-Modern World provides fresh perspectives on one of the most important and most controversial families of theoretical approaches to the study and practice of international law. The contributors include leading experts on international legal theory who analyse and criticise positivism as a conceptual framework for international law, explore its relationships with other approaches and apply it to current problems of international law. Is legal positivism relevant to the theory and practice of international law today? Have other answers to the problems of international law and the critique of positivism undermined the positivist project and its narratives? Do modern forms of positivism, inspired largely by the theoretically sophisticated jurisprudential concepts associated with Hans Kelsen and H. L. A. Hart, remain of any relevance for the international lawyer in this 'post-modern' age? The authors provide a wide variety of views and a stimulating debate about this family of approaches.

International law is not merely a set of rules or processes, but is a professional activity practised by a diversity of figures, including scholars, judges, counsel, teachers, legal advisers and activists. Individuals may, in different contexts, play more than one of these roles, and the interactions between them are illuminating of the nature of international law itself. This collection of innovative, multidisciplinary and self-reflective essays reveals a bilateral process whereby, on the one hand, the professionalisation of international law informs discourses about the law, and, on the other hand, discourses about the law inform the professionalisation of the discipline. Intended to promote a dialogue between practice and scholarship, this book is a must-read for all those engaged in the profession of international law.

This volume offers new practical and theoretical perspectives on one of the most complex questions regarding the formation of international law, namely that actors other than states contribute to the making of customary international law. Notwithstanding the International Law Commission's valuable contribution, the making of customary international law remains riddled with acute practical and theoretical controversies that continue to be intensively debated. Making extensive reference to the case-law of international law courts and tribunals, as well as the most recent scholarly work on customary international law, this volume provides a comprehensive study of the contribution of international organisations and non-state actors to the formation of customary international law. With innovative tools and guidance for law students, legal scholars, and researchers in law, as well as legal practitioners, advisers, judges, arbitrators, and counsels, this collection is essential reading for those wishing to understand and address contemporary questions of international law-making. -- .

International Legal Positivism in a Post-Modern World provides fresh perspectives on one of the most important and most controversial families of theoretical approaches to the study and practice of international law. The contributors include leading experts on international legal theory who analyse and criticise positivism as a conceptual framework for international law, explore its relationships with other approaches and apply it to current problems of international law. Is legal positivism relevant to the theory and practice of international law today? Have other answers to the problems of international law and the critique of positivism undermined the positivist project and its narratives? Do modern forms of positivism, inspired largely by the theoretically sophisticated jurisprudential concepts associated with Hans Kelsen and H. L. A. Hart, remain of any relevance for the international lawyer in this 'post-modern' age? The authors provide a wide variety of views and a stimulating debate about this family of approaches.