Introduction: Theorizing International Law

Subject(s):

Responsibility of international organizations — Customary international law — General principles of international law — Relationship of international law & host state law — Sources of international law — Forum non conveniens — New York Convention on Enforcement of Judgments

This introductory chapter briefly explores the practice of theorizing international law. Theorizing is an inherent part of the practice of international law. Theories of international law have attempted to demonstrate that laws governing the conduct of sovereigns exist at all, and have been concerned with the attempt to connect emerging forms of international legal practice to a philosophical or historical tradition from which international law is said to originate, or to develop a method for interpreting or systematizing international law. The relation of international law to the modern state has been the focus of much theoretical work, both by those seeking to challenge the state’s role as the privileged subject of international law or by those seeking to argue that recognition of its importance and status have been lost.