Books in the Hersch Lauterpacht Memorial Lectures series

International law was born from the impulse to 'civilize' late nineteenth-century attitudes towards race and society, argues Martti Koskenniemi in this study of the rise and fall of modern international law. This book combines legal analysis, historical and political critique and semi-biographical studies of key figures and institutions.

This book traces how the political ideal of self-determination has turned into an international legal standard, assessing its impact on existing legal norms through scrutiny of State practice as shown in national digests and UN proceedings. This primarily legal inquiry looks at law within its historical and political context, illuminating the interplay of law and politics.

The end of the Cold War appeared to revitalise the Security Council and offered the prospect of restoring the United Nations to its central role in the maintenance of international peace and security. Between the Gulf War of 1990 and the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the UN Secretariat found itself in the midst of an unprecedented period of activity involving authorised and unauthorised actions leading to the use of force. In this 2010 book Ralph Zacklin examines the tensions that developed between the Secretariat and member states, particularly the five permanent members of the Security Council, concerning the process and content of the Council's actions in the Gulf War, Bosnia, Kosovo and the Iraq War as the Secretariat strove to give effect to the fundamental principles of the Charter.

The nations that drafted the UN Charter in 1945 clearly were more concerned about peace than about justice. As a result, the Charter prohibits all use of force by states except in the event of an armed attack or when authorised by the Security Council. This arrangement has only very imperfectly withstood the test of time and changing world conditions. In requiring states not to use force in self-defence until after they had become the object of an actual armed attack, the Charter failed to address a growing phenomenon of clandestine subversion and of instantaneous nuclear threats. Fortunately although the Charter is very hard to amend, the drafters did agree that it should be interpreted flexibly by the United Nations' principal political institutions. In this way the norms governing use of force in international affairs have been adapted to meet changing circumstances and new challenges. The book also relates these changes in law and practice to changing public values pertaining to the balance between maintaining peace and promoting justice.

In his book, the distinguished lawyer Judge Shahabuddeen shows the extent to which the International Court of Justice is guided by its previous decisions, creating a blend of consistency and flexibility in its judgments. Judge Shahabuddeen's analysis of the Court is a major contribution to this important subject.

This book, first published in 2006, grapples with the long-held assumptions of international law and how they are being fundamentally altered by the forces of globalization. It also examines the challenges facing the WTO as a component of international economic law, and how that field is inextricably linked to general international law.

Denial of justice is one of the oldest bases of liability in international law and the modern understanding of denial of justice is examined by Paulsson in this book, which was originally published in 2005. The possibilities for prosecuting the offence of denial of justice have evolved in fundamental ways and it is now settled law that States cannot disavow international responsibility by arguing that their courts are independent of the government. Even more importantly, the doors of international tribunals have swung wide open to admit claimants other than states: non-governmental organisations, corporations and individuals, and Paulsson examines several recent cases of great importance in his book.

Investment claims have exposed the vague nature of the standards by which arbitral tribunals are expected to adjudicate them and the policy reasons which explicitly or implicitly have an influence. The ad hoc nature of the tribunals and the decisions reached on various controversial issues have brought to the fore the issue of consistency. Andres Rigo Sureda's Hersch Lauterpacht Memorial Lecture examines how arbitral discretion is exercised in the face of uncertainty of the law. It explores the choices made by arbitral tribunals as they approach treaty interpretation, as they search for limits in determining jurisdiction and the content of the standards of protection and as they search for consistency in the exercise of arbitral discretion.

Domestic lawyers are, above all, officers of the court. By contrast, the public international lawyer representing states before international tribunals is torn between loyalties to the state and loyalties to international law. As the stakes increase for the state concerned, the tension between these loyalties can become acute and lead to practices that would be condemned in developed national legal systems but have hitherto been ignored by international tribunals in international legal scholarship. They are the 'dirty stories' of international law. This detailed and contextually sensitive presentation of eight important cases before a variety of public international tribunals dissects some of the reasons for the resort to fraudulent evidence in international litigation and the profession's baffling reaction. Fraudulent evidence is resorted to out of greed, moral mediocrity or inherent dishonesty. In public international litigation, by contrast, the reasons are often more complex, with roots in the dynamics of international politics.

This book challenges long-standing assumptions of international law experts on the use of force, while also seeking to re-engage the public in understanding and committing again to a cause that made the phrase 'peace through law' famous. Aimed at anyone concerned with the problem of war.

This second edition combines the historical analysis of the acclaimed first edition with a survey of contemporary practice and case law on three salient problems in international arbitration. For practitioners engaged with these problems before international tribunals, and for academics and students examining their origins and development.

Democracies and authoritarian regimes have different approaches to international law, grounded in their different forms of government. As the balance of power between democracies and non-democracies shifts, it will have consequences for international legal order. Human rights may face severe challenges in years ahead, but citizens of democratic countries may still benefit from international legal cooperation in other areas. Ranging across several continents, this volume surveys the state of democracy-enhancing international law, and provides ideas for a way forward in the face of rising authoritarianism.