From Apology to Utopia: The Structure of International Legal Argument

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.

1. Objectivity in international law: conventional dilemmas; 2. Doctrinal history: the liberal doctrine of politics and its effect on international law; 3. The structure of modern doctrines; 4. Sovereignty; 5. Sources; 6. Custom; 7. Variations of world order: the structure of international legal argument; 8. Beyond objectivism; Epilogue; Bibliography and table of cases.