International law : a contemporary perspective /

Although this collection flows from normative presumptions about the global system, the emphasis is on the existing and elaborate framework of international law-its force, significance, strengths, and weaknesses. Contributors do project future transformation, but this volume is a far cry in this respect from the earlier world order-oriented book by two of the present editors, Falk and Mendlovitz (The Strategy of World Order, 1966). The work under review opens with H. Lauterpacht's enduring 1940 article on the Grotian tradition and concludes with Falk's new paradigm on the international legal order. In between are essays on compliance, structures, lawmaking, conflict, force, individuals, resources, and responsibilities, most written during the 1970s and 1980s. This eclectic collection is replete with many familiar articles and names (e.g., McDougal, Lasswell, Chayes, Franck, Henkin, Higgins, Alvarez, and Schachter). The articles range from the general and philosophical (e.g., international order, global bargaining, morality) to more specific areas (e.g., enforcement, human rights, laws of the sea, law of war) and issues (Cuban missile crisis, nuclear weapons). Even though most of the contributions were not written with this book in mind, they fit comfortably into a unified whole. The book provides an excellent perspective on the international legal system, its past, its present, and how it might emerge in the future. Solid reading for upper-division and graduate students.-C.E. Wilson, University of Arizona