tailieunhanh - The Politics of International Law

In late 2002 an increasingly heated debate arose within the United Nations Security Council about the merits of using force to disarm and depose Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq. The Bush Administration gave the Council an ultimatum: uphold the rule of international law, expressed in numerous Council resolutions calling on the regime to disarm, or follow the League of Nations into the dustbin of history. If the Council would not license the use of force, the United States would lead a ‘Coalition of the Willing’ to defend the rule of law and protect international security | Camtíiđge Studies in international Relations The Politics of international Law Edited by Christian Reus-Smit Cambridge 837668 This page intentionally left blank The Politics of International Law- Politics and law appear deeply entwined in contemporary international relations. Yet existing perspectives struggle to understand the complex interplay between these aspects of international life. In this path-breaking volume a group of leading international relations scholars and legal theorists advance a new constructivist perspective on the politics of international law. They reconceive politics as a field of human action that stands at the intersection of issues of identity purpose ethics and strategy and define law as an historically contingent institutional expression of such politics. They explain how liberal politics has conditioned modern international law and how law feeds back to constitute international relations and world politics. This new perspective on the politics of international law is illustrated through detailed case-studies of the use of force climate change landmines migrant rights the International Criminal Court the Kosovo bombing campaign international financial institutions and global governance. christian reus-smit is Professor and Head of the Department of International Relations in the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at the Australian National University. He is the author of American Power and World Order 2004 The Moral Purpose of the State 1999 co-author of Theories of International Relations 2001 and coeditor of Between Sovereignty and Global Governance 1998