What role does reason play in determining what, if anything, is morally right? What role does morality play in law? Perhaps the most controversial answer to these fundamental questions is that reason supports a supreme principle of both morality and legality. The contributors to this book cast a fresh critical eye over the coherence of modern approaches to ethical rationalism within law, and reflect on the intellectual history on which it builds. The contributors then take the debate beyond the traditional concerns of legal theory into areas such as the relationship between morality and international law, and the impact of ethically controversial medical innovations on legal understanding.

The essays in this collection explore the various ways in which a number of key European and International legal institutions attempt to define the boundaries of jurisdictional competence. The principle questions which are addressed are: (a) Does the relevant institution have a jurisdictional competence adequate to the challenges that it faces? (b) What are the parameters that bear upon the exercise of a particular jurisdictional competence? (c) What are the effects, positive or negative, of extending, restraining or creating a particular jurisdictional competence on those subject to its jurisdiction, other actors and the rule of law itself? Examples of the institutions covered in this book are the Security Council, the European Court of Justice, NATO, the International Court of Justice and the State. Contents: 1. Introduction; (A) Theoretical Approaches to the Assertion of Jurisdiction 2. Jurisdiction: The State - Frank Berman; 3. New Wine in Old Bottles or Old Wine in New Bottles or Only Old Wine in Old Bottles? Reflections on the Assertion of Jurisdiction in Public International Law - Iain Scobbie; 4. The Exercise of Jurisdiction in Private International Law - Jonathan Hill; (B) Approaches to the Assertion of Jurisdiction Political Bodies: 5. National Law, International Law and EU Law - How do they Relate? - Trevor Hartley; 6. The Member States' Competence and Jurisdiction under the EU/EC Treaties - Stephen Hyett; 7. Competition Law in a Globalized Marketplace: Beyond Jurisdiction - Brenda Sufrin; 8. The Jurisdiction of the Security Council: Original Intention and New World Order(s) - Colin Warbrick; 9. Jurisdiction, NATO and the Kosovo Conflict - Christopher Greenwood; (C) Approaches to the Assertion of Jurisdiction by Adjudicative Bodies: 10. Approaches of Domestic Courts to the Assertion of International Jurisdiction - Hazel Fox; 11. Assertion of Jurisdiction by the International Court of Justice - Abdul Koroma; 12. Approaches to the Assertion of International Jurisdiction: The Human Rights Committee - Dominic McGoldrick; 13. Some Problems of Compulsory Jurisdiction before Specialised Tribunals: The Law of the Sea - Alan Boyle;15 Activism and Restraint in the European Court of Justice - Stephen Weatherill; 14. The Assertion of Jurisdiction by the European Court of Justice - John Usher.

International lawyers have often been interested in the link between their discipline and the foundational issues of jurisprudential method, but little that is systematic has been written on this subject. This book fills the gap by focusing on issues of concept-formation in legal science in general, as well as looking at their application to the specific concerns of international law. In responding to these issues, the author argues that public international law seeks to establish and institutionalize a system of authoritative judgment whereby the conditions by which a community of states can co-exist and co-operate are ensured. A State, in turn, must be understood as ultimately deriving legitimacy from the pursuit of the human dignity of the community it governs, as well as the dignity of those human beings and States affected by its actions in international relations. This argument is in line with a long and now resurgent cosmopolitan tradition in legal and political philosophy. The book shows how this approach is reflected in accepted paradigm cases of international law, such as the United Nations Charter. It then explains how this approach can provide insights into the theoretical foundations of these accepted paradigms, including our understanding of the sources of international law, international legal personality, and the design of global institutions. ..".Capps' writing style is clean, measured, and written with obvious passion. He engages the reader in back and forth discussions that stimulate thought-provoking questions....It can be said with certainty that Human Dignity and the Foundations of International Law is a comprehensive, well thought out, and welcome addition to the field of philosophy and the law." Saskatchewan Law Review 2012, Vol. 75

In recent decades, new international courts and other legal bodies have proliferated as international law has broadened beyond the fields of treaty law and diplomatic relations. This development has not only triggered debate about how authority may be held by institutions beyond the state, but has also thrown into question familiar models of authority found in legal and political philosophy. The essays in this book take a philosophical approach to these developments, debates and questions. In doing so, they seek to clarify the relevant issues underpinning, as well as develop possible solutions to the problem of how legal authority may be constructed beyond the state.

Over the last 300 years public international law has developed from a set of principles, ultimately grounded in natural law, into an extremely complex web of norms, supporting and sustained by an array of international institutions which, in combination, present a system for the realisation of global public order. These volumes, arranged into five parts, bring together key writings which both illustrate and exemplify ideas that have informed the historical development of the discipline. The first part outlines three approaches, based on systems of natural laws, positivist systems and finally the system of 'public' international order. Parts two to four reflect aspects of the issues raised in this introduction in the context of a number of key areas of substantive law, these being sources, personality and jurisdiction and immunity. The final part then takes a look into the potential futures of international law and the international legal system from a variety of perspectives, including global administrative law, transgovernmentalism and public law conceptions of international order.

What role does reason play in determining what, if anything, is morally right? What role does morality play in law? Perhaps the most controversial answer to these fundamental questions is that reason supports a supreme principle of both morality and legality. The contributors to this book cast a fresh critical eye over the coherence of modern approaches to ethical rationalism within law, and reflect on the intellectual history on which it builds. The contributors then take the debate beyond the traditional concerns of legal theory into areas such as the relationship between morality and international law, and the impact of ethically controversial medical innovations on legal understanding.

International lawyers have often been interested in the link between their discipline and the foundational issues of jurisprudential method, but little that is systematic has been written on this subject. In this book, an attempt is made to fill this gap by focusing on issues of concept-formation in legal science in general with a view to their application to the specific concerns of international law. In responding to these issues, the author argues that public international law seeks to establish and institutionalise a system of authoritative judgment whereby the conditions by which a community of states can co-exist and co-operate are ensured. A state, in turn, must be understood as ultimately deriving legitimacy from the pursuit of the human dignity of the community it governs, as well as the dignity of those human beings and states affected by its actions in international relations. This argument is in line with a long and now resurgent Kantian tradition in legal and political philosophy. The book shows how this approach is reflected in accepted paradigm cases of international law, such as the United Nations Charter. It then explains how this approach can provide insights into the theoretical foundations of these accepted paradigms, including our understanding of the sources of international law, international legal personality and the design of global institutions.

In recent decades, new international courts and other legal bodies have proliferated as international law has broadened beyond the fields of treaty law and diplomatic relations. This development has not only triggered debate about how authority may be held by institutions beyond the state, but has also thrown into question familiar models of authority found in legal and political philosophy. The essays in this book take a philosophical approach to these developments, debates and questions. In doing so, they seek to clarify the relevant issues underpinning, as well as develop possible solutions to the problem of how legal authority may be constructed beyond the state.