From Apology to Utopia

Drawing from a range of materials Martti Koskenniemi demonstrates how international law becomes vulnerable to the contrasting criticisms of being either an irrelevant moralist Utopia or a manipulable faade for State interests. He examines the conflicts inherent in international law--sources sovereignty ''custom'' and ''world order--and shows how legal discourse about such subjects can be described in terms of a small number of argumentative rules. Originally published in English in Finland in 1989 this reissue includes a newly written Epilogue by the author.