This timely Handbook contains a wide-ranging overview of the diverse research methods used within international law. Providing an insightful examination of how international legal knowledge is analysed and adopted, this Handbook offers the reader a deeper understanding on the role and place of research methods in international legal theory, reasoning and practice. Split into five parts, the chapters cover key topics across doctrinal, empirical, socio-legal, interdisciplinary research methods and methodology. The contributors also apply their knowledge and insight to explore the relationship between different research methods and their role in international legal theory, reasoning and practice. Covering a range of diverse subjects yet written in a methodical style, the contributors furthermore engage with rethinking international law methods. This comprehensive Handbook will be invaluable for researchers in international law, as well as being an excellent resource for graduate and doctoral students.

This unique book examines the role non-doctrinal research methods play in international legal research: what do they add to the traditional doctrinal analysis of law and what do they neglect? Focusing on empirical and socio-legal methods, it provides a critical evaluation of the breadth, scope and limits of the representation of international law created by these often-neglected methodologies. The book examines whether non-doctrinal methods promise certainty and objectivity. Chapters explore how adopting social research methods allows artificial landscapes of international law to be constructed, with the aim of aiding our understanding of its normative content. In doing so, the contributors place the normative content of international law into the realm of scientific investigation, providing a critical distance from its principled roots. This insightful book argues that any research methodology, whether doctrinal or non-doctrinal, involves a necessarily partial and incomplete vision of international law. Hence, the critical variation provided by non-doctrinal methods is a useful means for supplementing, rather than replacing, doctrinal analysis. Accessible and engaging, Pluralising International Legal Scholarship will be a key resource for international law scholars, especially those specializing in legal methods. The interdisciplinary nature of the study will also appeal to students and academics working in the fields of international relations, international organization and social research methodology. Contributors include: R. Deplano, M. Dordeska, E.A. Faulkner, G. Gentile, H. Lai, S. Landefeld, G.M. Lentner, L. Lonardo, A. Magaria, J. Ostransky

The book examines the processes through which the resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly acquire legal significance through state practice. By using an empirically-grounded method of inquiry, it examines how states attribute legal significance to resolutions in three different contexts: at the time of adoption, within domestic law and in international practice. The book shows that, contrary to the existent theories on the legal significance of resolutions, the General Assembly is not a unitary actor. It also demonstrates that the concept of legal significance of resolutions is not predetermined or static. While resolutions are often framed in normative language, they acquire legal significance only to the extent that states find it desirable or convenient, depending on context and circumstances. Consequently, the attribution of legal significance to resolutions turns out to be a manifestation of state will to abide by their content, not the will of the General Assembly.

The book offers insights on whether international law can shape the politics of the Security Council and conversely, the extent to which the latter contribute to the development of international law. By providing a systematic analysis of the quantity and quality of international legal instruments referred to in the text of resolutions, the book reconstructs patterns of the Security Council's behavioural regularities and assesses them against the provisions of the United Nations Charter, which establishes its mandate. The analysis is divided into three periods - the origins and Cold War period, post-Cold War period and the twenty-first century - and assesses the resolutions passed in each period by thematic category. The book argues that while international law plays an important role in shaping the politics of the Security Council, the Council's resolutions do not contribute significantly to the development of international law.