This insightful book offers a comprehensive account of the conceptual challenges facing state consent in the framework of treaty making. It highlights the relevant discursive patterns and pinpoints the increasing antagonism between treaty bodies and state parties over the ownership of treaty evolution, with the author warning of the repercussions of treaty institutionalization. Showcasing the broad and encompassing nature of treaties, the author highlights the surrounding conflicts through chapters on the theory and concept of treaty and case studies on the flexibility of consent to be bound means, treaty withdrawal, the automatic succession doctrine and the law of reservations. The last part of the book explores how the invocation of the collective interest ideal, the institutionalization of treaties and the recurrence of formalism can endanger the legitimacy and effectiveness of treaty regimes. This book offers an original perspective on the role of state consent in the law of treaties and will be of great interest to academics, researchers and practitioners of international law seeking further knowledge about this complex topic.

Artificial intelligence (AI) – both in its current, comparatively limited form and even more so in its potential future forms (such as general and superintelligence) – has raised both concerns and hopes. Its actual and potential consequences are increasingly far-reaching, affecting almost every facet of human life on a collective and individual level: from the use of mobile phones and social media to autonomous weapons, and from the digitalization of knowledge and information to the patentability of AI innovations, unexpected philosophical, ontological, political and legal questions continue to arise.This book offers an insightful and essential guide to the scientific questions that are shaping humanity’s present and future. Presenting a collection of academic essays written by prominent scholars, it addresses the major legal issues concerning AI: its impact on a wide range of human behavior and the general legal response, including questions on AI and legal personhood; responsibility, liability and culpability in the age of AI; the challenges AI poses for intellectual property regimes; human rights challenges; and AI’s impact on jus ad bellum and jus in bello.Given its scope, the book will appeal to researchers, scholars and practitioners seeking a guide to this rapidly transforming landscape.