Law-making and sources

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

    Abstract

    International law is constantly under challenge as a legal system. Some scholars depict it as weak, mutable, unstable (Morgenthau 1948, 284), some as the mere product of states maximising their interests (Goldsmith and Posner 2005), some point to it as the framework of many mundane activities, for example as the basis of airline travel or international postal services (Henkin 1979, 29–30), while others explain its value as a ‘placemarker for justice’ or as a vehicle for the ‘regulative ideal of the international community’ (Koskenniemi 2007, 30). Perhaps because there is so much anxiety about whether international law can claim to be a branch of law, the topic of the making and sources of international law dominates most introductory works. It is as if pinning down the well-springs of international law will provide certainty and authority for the discipline.
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationThe Cambridge Companion to International Law
    Editors James Crawford, Martti Koskenniemi & Surabhi Ranganathan
    Place of PublicationCambridge, UK
    PublisherCambridge University Press
    Pages187-202
    Edition1st
    ISBN (Print)9780521190886
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2012

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