As the world approaches the end of the twentieth century it becomes clear that the global legal system governing relations between the members of the international community is passing through a period of profound change. The traditional lawmaking techniques, established largely at the beginning of this century, were constituted so as to provide for only gradual reforms within a limited and homogeneous community of states. Faced with a growing number of global problems, the international community has discovered that the traditional legal system lacks effective procedures for rapid generation of new international legal norms. Law-Making in the International Community examines to what extent the transformations in the social and the legal infrastructures of the international community have affected the traditional rules, determining how international law is to be made or changed. By focusing on actual state practice, official statements of governments and the pronouncements of the World Court, this book seeks to clarify the content and significance of the existing community consensus concerning the authoritative methods of lawmaking.

As the world approaches the end of the twentieth century it becomes clear that the global legal system governing relations between the members of the international community is passing through a period of profound change. The traditional lawmaking techniques, established largely at the beginning of this century, were constituted so as to provide for only gradual reforms within a limited and homogeneous community of states. Faced with a growing number of global problems, the international community has discovered that the traditional legal system lacks effective procedures for rapid generation of new international legal norms. "Law-Making in the International Community" examines to what extent the transformations in the social and the legal infrastructures of the international community have affected the traditional rules, determining how international law is to be made or changed. By focusing on actual state practice, official statements of governments and the pronouncements of the World Court, this book seeks to clarify the content and significance of the existing community consensus concerning the authoritative methods of lawmaking.

International law scholarship has not adequately recognised the magnitude of the role of ‘global civil society’ in ‘global governance’ and ‘international lawmaking.’ Building upon theoretical, historical and legal scholarship and presenting studies of GCS actor practice in a wide range of lawmaking processes, including treaty-making, conferences, international organisations and adjudicatory mechanisms, this book convincingly demonstrates that GCS actors have created and influenced the creation of norms of binding public international law and influential non-binding ‘soft’ or non-law. It presents a compelling case that calls for augmenting GCS access to information, participation in legal decision-making processes for those likely to be affected, and access justice thereby enhancing the legitimacy of public international law.

The global landscape has changed profoundly over the past decades. As a result, the making of international law and the way we think about it has become more and more diversified. This Research Handbook offers a comprehensive guide to the theory and practice of international lawmaking today. It takes stock at both the conceptual and the empirical levels of the instruments, processes, and actors involved in the making of international law. The editors have taken an approach which carefully combines theory and practice in order to provide both an overview and a critical reflection of international lawmaking. Comprehensive and well-structured, the book contains essays by leading scholars on key aspects of international lawmaking and on lawmaking in the main issue areas. Attention is paid to classic processes as well as new developments and shades of normativity. This timely and authoritative Handbook will be a valuable resource for academics, students, legal practitioners, diplomats, government and international organization officials as well as civil society representatives.

The classical model of international lawmaking posits governments as exclusively authoritative actors. However, commercially-oriented entities have long been protagonists within the prevailing international legal order, concluding contracts and resolving disputes with governments. Is the international legal personality of corporations undergoing further qualitative transformations ? Corporations influence the State practice constitutive of custom and create, refashion or challenge normative rules. The corporate willingness to fill legal lacunae where governments do not exercise their full regulatory responsibility is also observable through resort to alternative legal mechanisms. Corporations moreover contribute directly to treaty negotiations and occupy crucial roles during subsequent implementation. Indeed, an analysis of the access conditions and participatory modalities for non-State actors could support a right to participate under common international procedural law. Their substantive contributions are also evident when corporations participate in enforcing international law against governments through national courts, diplomatic protection (including the WTO) and arbitration (including NAFTA). However, the practice of intergovernmental organizations reveals several challenges including managing corporate interaction with developing country governments and other non-State actors. Acknowledging corporate contributions also has important implications for national regulatory autonomy, the ability of governments to mediate contested policy issues, the democratic legitimacy of the contemporary lawmaking process and an understanding of consent as the underlying basis for international law.

The 2015 edition of The Global Community: Yearbook of International Law and Jurisprudence constitutes the only thorough annual survey of major developments in international courts. General Editor Giuliana Ziccardi Capaldo selects excerpts from important court opinions as well as the contributors who provide expert guidance on those cases. The topical organization and subject index make the thorough, comprehensive content easy to navigate.

Lauterpacht, H[ersch]. The Function of Law in the International Community. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1933. xxvi, 470 pp. Reprinted 2000 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. LCCN 00-022124. ISBN 1-58477-090-2. Hardcover. * Lauterpacht disputes the widely held viewpoint in the international community that international law has inherent limitations and is incapable of unification, and presents his treatise in a well-researched technical format. "While on the surface Dr. Lauterpacht's study is an analysis of the judicial process, it embraces practically the whole philosophy of international law. However, it is less the scope than the manner of handling the subject which makes this book one of the most outstanding contributions to the science of international law." Francis Deak, Columbia Law Review 34:797. Marke, A Catalogue of the Law Collection at New York University 637.

This timely book provides an accessible insight into how the concept of sustainable development can be made operational through its translation into legal terms. Understood as a multidimensional legal principle, sustainable development facilitates coherent international law making. Using this notion as an analytical lens on the WTO Agreement on Agriculture, the book considers the unresolved question of what a sustainable and coherent agricultural trade agreement could look like.

International Humanitarian Law (IHL) is in a state of some turbulence, as a result of, among other things, non-international armed conflicts, terrorist threats and the rise of new technologies. This incisive book observes that while states appear to be reluctant to act as agents of change, informal methods of law-making are flourishing. Illustrating that not only courts, but various non-state actors, push for legal developments, this timely work offers an insight into the causes of this somewhat ambivalent state of IHL by focusing attention on both the legitimacy of law-making processes and the actors involved.

This book provides a critique of current international law-making and draws on a set of principles from Persian philosophers to present an alternative to influence the development of international law-making procedure. The work conceptualizes a substantive notion of democracy in order to regulate international law-making mechanisms under a set of principles developed between the twelfth and seventeenth centuries in Persia. What the author here names ‘democratic egalitarian multilateralism’ is founded on: the idea of ‘egalitarian law’ by Suhrawardi, the account of ‘substantial motion’ by Mulla Sadra, and the ideal of ‘intercultural dialectical democracy’ developed by Rūmī. Following a discussion of the conceptual flaws of the chartered and customary sources of international law, it is argued that ‘democratic egalitarian multilateralism’ could be a source for a set of principles to regulate the procedures through which international treaties are made as well as a criterion for customary international law-ascertainment. Presenting an alternative, drawn from a less dominant culture, to the established ideas of international law-making the book will be essential reading for researchers and academics working in public international law, history of law, legal theory, comparative legal theory, Islamic law, and history.