From Apology to Utopia: The Structure of International Legal Argument
Abstract
This book presents a critical view of international law as an argumentative practice that aims to 'depoliticise' international relations. Drawing from a range of materials, Koskenniemi demonstrates how international law becomes vulnerable to the contrasting criticisms of being either an irrelevant moralist Utopia or a manipulable facade 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. This book was originally published in English in Finland in 1989 and though it quickly became a classic, it has been out of print for some years. In 2006, Cambridge was proud to reissue this seminal text, together with a freshly written Epilogue in which the author both responds to critiques of the original work, and reflects on the effect and significance of his 'deconstructive' approach today.
Cite this
Vaughan Lowe, Martti Koskenniemi (1990). From Apology to Utopia: The Structure of International Legal Argument. Journal of Law and Society. https://doi.org/10.2307/1410160
@article{vaughan1990from,
title = {From Apology to Utopia: The Structure of International Legal Argument},
author = {Lowe, Vaughan and Koskenniemi, Martti},
year = {1990},
journal = {Journal of Law and Society},
doi = {10.2307/1410160}
}Citations in this library
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