Theory of International Law

This book seeks to analyse various aspects of international law, the link being how they structure and order the differing forces in the international legal order. It takes a threefold approach to the question: First, the effort goes to determining the fundamental characteristics of international law, the forces that explain and impregnate its applications. Second, the multiple relations between law and policy are analysed. Politics is a highly relevant factor for the implementation of each legal order (and also a threat to it); this is all the more true in international law, where the two forces, law and politics, are significantly close one to the other. Third, the reflections concentrate on a series of fundamental socio-legal notions: the common weal, justice, legal security, reciprocity (plus equality and proportionality), liberty, ethics and social morality and reason. It will be essential reading for all serious international law scholars.