Download or read book The Perils of Global Legalism written by Eric A. Posner and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2009-10-15 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first months of the Obama administration have led to expectations, both in the United States and abroad, that in the coming years America will increasingly promote the international rule of law—a position that many believe is both ethically necessary and in the nation’s best interests. With The Perils of Global Legalism, Eric A. Posner explains that such views demonstrate a dangerously naive tendency toward legalism—an idealistic belief that law can be effective even in the absence of legitimate institutions of governance. After tracing the historical roots of the concept, Posner carefully lays out the many illusions—such as universalism, sovereign equality, and the possibility of disinterested judgment by politically unaccountable officials—on which the legalistic view is founded. Drawing on such examples as NATO’s invasion of Serbia, attempts to ban the use of land mines, and the free-trade provisions of the WTO, Posner demonstrates throughout that the weaknesses of international law confound legalist ambitions—and that whatever their professed commitments, all nations stand ready to dispense with international agreements when it suits their short- or long-term interests. Provocative and sure to be controversial, The Perils of Global Legalism will serve as a wake-up call for those who view global legalism as a panacea—and a reminder that international relations in a brutal world allow no room for illusions.

Download or read book The Limits of International Law written by Jack L. Goldsmith and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2005-02-03 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: International law is much debated and discussed, but poorly understood. Does international law matter, or do states regularly violate it with impunity? If international law is of no importance, then why do states devote so much energy to negotiating treaties and providing legal defenses for their actions? In turn, if international law does matter, why does it reflect the interests of powerful states, why does it change so often, and why are violations of international law usually not punished? In this book, Jack Goldsmith and Eric Posner argue that international law matters but that it is less powerful and less significant than public officials, legal experts, and the media believe. International law, they contend, is simply a product of states pursuing their interests on the international stage. It does not pull states towards compliance contrary to their interests, and the possibilities for what it can achieve are limited. It follows that many global problems are simply unsolvable. The book has important implications for debates about the role of international law in the foreign policy of the United States and other nations. The authors see international law as an instrument for advancing national policy, but one that is precarious and delicate, constantly changing in unpredictable ways based on non-legal changes in international politics. They believe that efforts to replace international politics with international law rest on unjustified optimism about international law's past accomplishments and present capacities.

Download or read book The Executive Unbound written by Eric A. Posner and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-03-16 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ever since Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. used "imperial presidency" as a book title, the term has become central to the debate about the balance of power in the U.S. government. Since the presidency of George W. Bush, when advocates of executive power such as Dick Cheney gained ascendancy, the argument has blazed hotter than ever. Many argue the Constitution itself is in grave danger. What is to be done? The answer, according to legal scholars Eric Posner and Adrian Vermeule, is nothing. In The Executive Unbound, they provide a bracing challenge to conventional wisdom, arguing that a strong presidency is inevitable in the modern world. Most scholars, they note, object to today's level of executive power because it varies so dramatically from the vision of the framers. But there is nothing in our system of checks and balances that intrinsically generates order or promotes positive arrangements. In fact, the greater complexity of the modern world produces a concentration of power, particularly in the White House. The authors chart the rise of executive authority straight through to the Obama presidency. Political, cultural and social restraints, they argue, have been more effective in preventing dictatorship than any law. The executive-centered state tends to generate political checks that substitute for the legal checks of the Madisonian constitution.

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of the Theory of International Law written by Anne Orford and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-05-26 with total page 1000 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford Handbook of International Legal Theory provides an accessible and authoritative guide to the major thinkers, concepts, approaches, and debates that have shaped contemporary international legal theory. The Handbook features 48 original essays by leading international scholars from a wide range of traditions, nationalities, and perspectives, reflecting the richness and diversity of this dynamic field. The collection explores key questions and debates in international legal theory, offers new intellectual histories for the discipline, and provides fresh interpretations of significant historical figures, texts, and theoretical approaches. It provides a much-needed map of the field of international legal theory, and a guide to the main themes and debates that have driven theoretical work in international law. The Handbook will be an indispensable reference work for students, scholars, and practitioners seeking to gain an overview of current theoretical debates about the nature, function, foundations, and future role of international law.

Download or read book Mobilizing for Human Rights written by Beth A. Simmons and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2009-10-29 with total page 473 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beth Simmons demonstrates through a combination of statistical analysis and case studies that the ratification of treaties generally leads to better human rights practices. She argues that international human rights law should get more practical and rhetorical support from the international community as a supplement to broader efforts to address conflict, development, and democratization.

Download or read book The Twilight of Human Rights Law written by Eric Posner and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014-10-01 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Countries solemnly intone their commitment to human rights, and they ratify endless international treaties and conventions designed to signal that commitment. At the same time, there has been no marked decrease in human rights violations, even as the language of human rights has become the dominant mode of international moral criticism. Well-known violators like Libya, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan have sat on the U.N. Council on Human Rights. But it's not just the usual suspects that flagrantly disregard the treaties. Brazil pursues extrajudicial killings. South Africa employs violence against protestors. India tolerate child labor and slavery. The United States tortures. In The Twilight of Human Rights Law--the newest addition to Oxford's highly acclaimed Inalienable Rights series edited by Geoffrey Stone--the eminent legal scholar Eric A. Posner argues that purposefully unenforceable human rights treaties are at the heart of the world's failure to address human rights violations. Because countries fundamentally disagree about what the public good requires and how governments should allocate limited resources in order to advance it, they have established a regime that gives them maximum flexibility--paradoxically characterized by a huge number of vague human rights that encompass nearly all human activity, along with weak enforcement machinery that churns out new rights but cannot enforce any of them. Posner looks to the foreign aid model instead, contending that we should judge compliance by comprehensive, concrete metrics like poverty reduction, instead of relying on ambiguous, weak, and easily manipulated checklists of specific rights. With a powerful thesis, a concise overview of the major developments in international human rights law, and discussions of recent international human rights-related controversies, The Twilight of Human Rights Law is an indispensable contribution to this important area of international law from a leading scholar in the field.

Download or read book Legalism written by Georgy Kantor and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The book is in many ways the product of wonderfully stimulating weekly discussions and papers at the Oxford Legalism seminar, now in its ninth year ... In January 2016, a workshop on the specific theme of 'property and ownership' was organized"--Page v.

Download or read book Last Resort written by Eric A. Posner and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2018-04-02 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The bailouts during the recent financial crisis enraged the public. They felt unfair—and counterproductive: people who take risks must be allowed to fail. If we reward firms that make irresponsible investments, costing taxpayers billions of dollars, aren’t we encouraging them to continue to act irresponsibly, setting the stage for future crises? And beyond the ethics of it was the question of whether the government even had the authority to bail out failing firms like Bear Stearns and AIG. The answer, according to Eric A. Posner, is no. The federal government freely and frequently violated the law with the bailouts—but it did so in the public interest. An understandable lack of sympathy toward Wall Street has obscured the fact that bailouts have happened throughout economic history and are unavoidable in any modern, market-based economy. And they’re actually good. Contrary to popular belief, the financial system cannot operate properly unless the government stands ready to bail out banks and other firms. During the recent crisis, Posner agues, the law didn’t give federal agencies sufficient power to rescue the financial system. The legal constraints were damaging, but harm was limited because the agencies—with a few exceptions—violated or improvised elaborate evasions of the law. Yet the agencies also abused their power. If illegal actions were what it took to advance the public interest, Posner argues, we ought to change the law, but we need to do so in a way that also prevents agencies from misusing their authority. In the aftermath of the crisis, confusion about what agencies did do, should have done, and were allowed to do, has prevented a clear and realistic assessment and may hamper our response to future crises. Taking up the common objections raised by both right and left, Posner argues that future bailouts will occur. Acknowledging that inevitability, we can and must look ahead and carefully assess our policy options before we need them.

Download or read book International Law written by Wade Mansell and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-08-22 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This new edition provides a critical introduction to the concepts, principles and rules of international law through a consideration of contemporary international events. It examines both the possibilities and limitations of the legal method in resolving international disputes, and notes the actual effects of international law upon international disagreements. Such an approach remains sceptical rather than cynical, and is intended to provide the means by which the role of international law may be evaluated. This entails discussion of the legal quality of international law; the relationship between international law and international relations; the Eurocentricity' of international law; and the connection between political power and the ability to use or abuse (or ignore) international law. The new edition explores the impact of the United States' latest direction in foreign policy (arguably an intensification of pre-existing neo-conservative trends); considers in greater depth the issue of economic self-determination in relation to ex-colonial nations; expands the discussion of jurisdiction to cover immunity from jurisdiction; and covers recent developments at the International Criminal Court. Underlying the book is the assertion that international law is political in content (in the sense of being concerned with the exercise of power) but that it draws much of its effectiveness from its self-portrayal as being apolitical, or at least politically neutral.

Download or read book Can Human Rights Survive written by Conor Gearty and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2006-05-18 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this set of three essays, originally presented as the 2005 Hamlyn Lectures, Conor Gearty considers whether human rights can survive the challenges of the war on terror, the revival of political religion, and the steady erosion of the world's natural resources. He also looks deeper than this to consider the fundamental question: How can we tell what human rights are? In his first essay, Gearty asks how the idea of human rights needs to be made to work in our age of relativism, uncertainty and anxiety. In the second, he assesses how the idea of human rights has coped with its incorporation in legal form in the UK Human Rights Act, arguing that the record is much better and more democratic than many human rights enthusiasts allow. In his final essay, Gearty confronts the challenges that may destroy the language of human rights for the generations that follow us.

Download or read book Research Handbook on Global Administrative Law written by Sabino Cassese and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2016-02-27 with total page 608 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Handbook explores the main themes and topics of the emerging field of Global Administrative Law with contributions by leading scholars and experts from universities and organizations around the world. The variety of the subjects addressed and the internationality of the Handbook’s perspectives make for a truly global and multi-dimensional view of the field. The book first examines the growth of global administrations, their interactions within global networks, the emergence of a global administrative process, and the development of the rule of law and democratic principles at a global level. It goes on to illustrate the relationship between global law and other legal orders, with particular attention to regional systems and national orders. The final section, devoted to the emergence of a global legal culture, brings the book full circle by identifying the growth of a global epistemic community. The Research Handbook on Global Administrative Law provides a contemporary overview of the nascent field in detailed yet accessible terms, making it a valuable book for university courses. Academics and scholars with an interest in international law, administrative law, public law, and comparative law will find value in this book, as well as legal professionals involved with international and supranational organizations and national civil servants dealing with supranational organizations.

Download or read book International Investment Law written by Guiguo Wang and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-12-05 with total page 658 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Increasing and intensified cross-border economic exchange such as trade and investment is an important feature of globalization. In the past, a distinction could be made between capital importing and exporting countries, or host and home countries for foreign direct investment (FDI). Due to globalization, FDI is presently made by and in both developed and developing countries. Differences in political, economic and legal systems and culture are no longer obstacles for FDI, and to varying degrees the economic development of almost all countries is closely linked with the inflow of FDI. This book conducts critical assessments of aspects of current international law on FDI, focusing on cases decided by the tribunals of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) and other tribunals as well as decisions of annulment ad hoc committees of the ICSID. In examining such cases, Guiguo Wang takes into account the Chinese culture and China’s practice in the related areas. The book explores topics including: the development and trend of international investment law; unilateral, bilateral and multilateral mechanisms for encouraging and protecting FDIs; determination of qualified investors and investments and consent as conditions for protection; relative and absolute standards of treatment; determination of expropriation in practice; assessment of compensation for expropriation; difficulties in enforcing investment arbitral awards; and alternatives for improving the existing system. The book will be of great use and interest to scholars, practitioners and students of international investment law and international economic law, Asian law, and Chinese studies.

Download or read book Global Constitutionalism and the Path of International Law written by Surendra R. Bhandari and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2016-05-04 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Global Constitutionalism and the Path of International Law offers an account of the most important growth and features of international law in the form of global constitutionalism. This book demonstrates how global constitutionalism is shaping the path of international law.

Download or read book American Foreign Policy Ideology and the International Rule of Law written by Malcolm Jorgensen and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-01-02 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Demonstrates American legal policymakers hold competing conceptions of the 'international rule of law' structured by foreign policy ideologies.

Download or read book How to Do Things with International Law written by Ian Hurd and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2019-08-27 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A runner-up for the 2018 Chadwick Alger Prize, International Studies Association's International Organization Section, this provocative reassessment of the rule of law in world politics examines how and why governments use and manipulate international law in foreign policy.

Download or read book Global Justice and International Economic Law written by Chi Carmody and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-01-09 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the beginnings of the GATT and the Bretton Woods institutions, and on to the creation of the WTO, states have continued to develop institutions and legal infrastructure to promote global interdependence. International lawyers are experts in understanding how these institutions operate in practice, but they tend to uncritically accept comparative advantage as the principal normative criterion to justify these institutions. In contrast, moral and political philosophers have developed accounts of global justice, but these accounts have had relatively little influence on international legal scholarship and on institutional design. This volume reflects the results of a symposium held at Tillar House, the American Society of International Law headquarters in Washington, DC, in November 2008, which brought together philosophers, legal scholars and economists to discuss the problems of understanding international economic law from the standpoints of rights and justice, in particular from the standpoint of distributive justice.

Download or read book Terror in the Balance written by Eric A. Posner and published by Oxford University Press on Demand. This book was released on 2007-01-04 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Terror in the Balance, Posner and Vermeule take on civil libertarians of both the left and the right, arguing that the government should be given wide latitude to adjust policy and liberties in the times of emergency. They emphasize the virtues of unilateral executive actions and argue for making extensive powers available to the executive as warranted. At a time when the 'struggle against violent extremism' dominates the United States' agenda, this important and controversial work will spark discussion in the classroom and intellectual press alike.