The essay examines some of the changes in my own thinking about the politics of engaging
in international law since the original publication of the article that opened the first issue of …

International law was born from the impulse to'civilize'late nineteenth-century attitudes towards
race and society, argues Martti Koskenniemi in this extensive study of the rise and fall of …

This book presents a critical view of international law as an argumentative practice that aims
to'depoliticise'international relations. Drawing from a range of materials, Koskenniemi …

Today international law is everywhere. Wars are fought and opposed in its name. It is invoked
to claim rights and to challenge them, to indict or support political leaders, to distribute …

Successive ICJ Presidents have expressed concern about the proliferation of international
tribunals and substantive fragmentation of international law. This is not a new phenomenon. …

Public international law hovers between cosmopolitan ethos and technical specialization.
Recently, it has differentiated into functional regimes such as ‘trade law’, ‘human rights law’, ‘…

This chapter extends the criticism of the liberal idea of the Rechtstaat, a commonplace in late
modern western society, into its international counterpart. It shows our inherited ideal of a …

INTERNATIONAL lawyers need not be reminded of the revolutionary and unclear character
of self-determination. During the 1960s and 1970s we were able to contain its potentially …

Globalization is a topic of some anxiety among international lawyers. On the one hand, its
fluid dynamics — fragmentation, deformalization and empire — undermine traditional …

1. At its fifty-second session, in 2000, the International Law Commission decided to include
the topic “Risks en–suing from fragmentation of international law” in its longterm programme …