International Law: Cases and Commentary (American Casebook Series and Other Coursebooks)

The authors' ambitions in the Second Edition are simply to teach, to give law professors and law students the cases and commentary necessary to achieve a first-class professional education in the fundamentals of international law. No matter what international law specialty a student may go on to study or to practice-international corporate law, international environmental law, international litigation, international human rights, etc.-the authors lay the foundation for that study and practice in this book. The order of chapters constitutes a sensible organization for most courses in international law. Chapter 1 introduces international law, looking briefly at the subject's history and presenting and discussing two sample, albeit well-known, cases to illuminate the nature of international legal rules and international legal processes. Chapters 2 and 3 examine the sources of international law in greater depth, showing the student how lawyers, judges, and jurists draw international legal rules from a variety of sources, e.g., treaties, custom, general principles, jus cogens, and equity. Chapters 4 and 5 return to international legal process, exploring the ways in which international law is applied first in municipal courts and second international tribunals. The authors then turn to the relationship between international law and the actors in international relations: individuals and international human rights law in Chapter 6, states in Chapter 7, and international organizations, governmental and non governmental, in Chapter 8. Finally, the authors address four substantive areas of great practical importance in modern international law: the use of force in Chapter 9,common spaces and the environment in Chapter 10, the Law of the Sea in Chapter 11, and international conflict of laws in Chapter 12.