Iillustrates ideas that have informed the historical development of the discipline of public international law. This book outlines three approaches, based on systems of natural laws, positivist systems and finally the system of 'public' international order.

Contents: Volume I: Introduction; Part I The Nature of International Law: Sovereignty, Hans Kelsen; The science of international law: its task and method, L. Oppenheim; Legal positivism as normative politics: international society, balance of power and Lassa Oppenheim's positive international law, Benedict Kingsbury; The Grotian tradition in international law, H. Lauterpacht; The United Nations Charter as constitution of the international community, Bardo Fassbender; Two liberalisms, Gerry Simpson; Policy considerations and the international judicial process, Rosalyn Higgins. Part II The Sources of International Law: Towards relative normativity in international law?, Prosper Weil; In defence of relative normativity: communitarian values and the Nicaragua case, John Tasioulas; Normative hierarchy in international law, Dinah Shelton; Universal international law, Jonathan I. Charney; Universality or integrity: some reflections on reservations to general multilateral treaties, Catherine Redgwell; Name index. Volume II: Part III Personality: The criteria for statehood in international law, James Crawford; The constitutive versus the declaratory theory of recognition: tertium non datur?, Stefan Talmon; The emerging right to democratic governance, Thomas M. Franck; The 'not-a-cat' syndrome: can the international human rights regime accommodate non-state actors?, Philip Alston. Part IV Jurisdiction and Immunity: Jurisdiction in international law, Michael Akehurst; US extraterritorial jurisdiction: the Helms-Burton and D'Amato Acts, Vaughan Lowe; The problem of jurisdictional immunities of foreign states, H. Lauterpacht; Immunity versus human rights: the Pinochet case, Andrea Bianchi; State immunity, human rights, and Jus Cogens: a critique of the normative hierarchy theory, Lee M. Caplan. Part V The Future of International Law: Global governance as administration - national and transnational approaches to global administrative law, Benedict Kingsbury, Nico Krisch, Richa