This book conceptualizes international law as an expression of practical reason, focusing on the genesis of modern international law in the essence of the concept of sovereignty. Utilizing the philosophical method of R.G. Collingwood, the essence of sovereignty is sought in a dialectical model drawn from the philosophy of David Hume. John Martin Gillroy transcends conventional social scientific method, political theory, and its understanding of global governance to make the study of the philosophical underpinnings of international law accessible, grounded, and practical. This book provides analytic tools for understanding globalization, international legal thought, legal theory, and political philosophy, offering engaging insights on a complex field of study. It outlines the first of three arguments describing the evolution of international law as a manifestation of practical reason through an application of philosophical method to the source, locus, and scope of the concept of sovereignty. It moves from a dialectic balance favoring utility, to a balance dominated by legal right, and finally to a dialectic of duty to humanity and nature.

This book argues that environmental risk, as a policy problem, requires moving beyond the market principle of efficiency as the basis of decision making and toward the articulation and use of environmental values to produce good public choices. .

Public decisions on environmental risk have traditionally been weighed in terms of the principle of efficiency and its methodologies, such as cost-benefit and risk-benefit analysis. These original essays argue for moving beyond the market paradigm toward making policy that incorporates environmental values. Scholars representing a broad range of disciplines present a thorough analysis and methodological investigation of environmental risk and the potential for integrating environmental values into the policymaking process. They address the normative and theoretical roots of environmental risk, describe the distinct domain that exists for environmental values as opposed to economic values, and look at the conflicts between economic and environmental values within the applied context of the NIMBY (not in my back yard) phenomenon.

The book transcends conventional social scientific method, political theory and its understanding of global governance to make the study of the philosophical essence of the international legal system fully accessible.