International law : a welfarist approach /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:Posner, Eric A., author.
Imprint:[Chicago, Illinois] : Law School, University of Chicago, 2005.
Description:1 online resource (63 pages)
Language:English
Series:John M. Olin Law & Economics Working Paper ; no. 256 (2d series)
John M. Olin Program in Law & Economics working paper ; 2nd ser., no. 256.
Subject:International law -- Philosophy.
International law -- Moral and ethical aspects.
International law -- Moral and ethical aspects.
International law -- Philosophy.
Format: E-Resource Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/8891793
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Notes:"September 2005."
Includes bibliographical references.
Title from online title page (viewed August 28, 2012).
Summary:"This paper evaluates international law from a welfarist perspective. Global welfarism requires that international law advance the well being of everyone in the world, and scholars influenced by global welfarism and similar cosmopolitan principles have advocated radical restructuring of international law. But global welfarism is subject to several constraints, including (1) heterogeneity of preferences of the world population, which produces the state system; (2) agency costs, which produce imperfect governments; and (3) the problem of collective action. These constraints place limits on what policies motivated by global welfarism can achieve, and explain some broad features of international law that otherwise remain puzzling. These features include the central place of state sovereignty in international law despite the moral arbitrariness of borders; the weakness of multilateral treaties; the limited role of individual liability in international law; the predominantly legislative nature of international institutions and the weakness of executive and judicial institutions; and the absence of redistributive obligations in international law."