The paradigm of state consent in the law of treaties is increasingly under attack. Which narratives on the treaty concept legitimize or delegitimize the challenges to the consensualist paradigm? Which areas of the law of treaties are more concerned by these attacks? What are the ensuing risks? From consent to be bound to treaty succession, and from treaty denunciation to reservations, this book offers a tour de force on the paradigm of state consent, its challenges, and their politics.

The obligations stemming from international law are still predominantly considered, despite important normative and descriptive critiques, as being 'based' on (State) consent. To that extent, international law differs from domestic law where consent to the law has long been considered irrelevant to law-making, whether as a criterion of validity or as a ground of legitimacy. In addition to a renewed historical and philosophical interest in (State) consent to international law, including from a democratic theory perspective, the issue has also recently regained in importance in practice. Various specialists of international law and the philosophy of international law have been invited to explore the different questions this raises in what is the first edited volume on consent to international law in English language. The collection addresses three groups of issues: the notions and roles of consent in contemporary international law; its objects and types; and its subjects and institutions.

This book explores how the law of treaty withdrawal operates. Many commentators have observed a wider sense of crisis in international law as governments of different ideological stripes withdraw or threaten to withdraw from international organisations and treaties. There are different political forces behind all of these cases, but they all use the same basic device in international law – a treaty withdrawal clause. This book focuses on withdrawal clauses within multilateral treaties, providing a detailed overview of their operation, drawing on a range of case studies including Brexit, nuclear weapons treaties and investment arbitration agreements. The obligations a withdrawal clause places on a withdrawing state help regulate the withdrawal process, providing a notional form of stability. Using insights from international relations theory and legal theory, this book unpacks how and why the law of withdrawal operates and what its limitations are.

Examining the fulfilment of international obligations by subjects of this law, this book explores the normative and functional links between the sources and rules of international law on the one hand, and the responsibility for violating international law on the other. In the sphere of law-making, the theory of obligations allows for a more precise and considered formulation of international obligations. It has the potential to enable subjects of international law to behave more rationally, allowing deeper reflection on whether to take on obligations and how to properly perform them. This book proposes a new approach to the issue of the proper operation of international law, with the theory of obligations at its heart. Linking the institutions and concepts of international law into a rational whole, the book offers an analysis of the operation of international law and the behaviour of its subjects to develop a framework for ensuring the ultimate effectiveness of international law. Analysing sources of law including treaties and common law, alongside the resolutions of international organisations, this book demonstrates the practical application of the subject with reference to the jurisprudence of international courts and other bodies. The volume will be of interest to scholars, students, and practitioners concerned with international law – its creation, performance, application, compliance, and enforcement.

The book examines treaty law from the angle of types of motion, combining theory with practical examples and empirical data.

The Oxford Guide to Treaties is the authoritative reference point for anyone studying or involved in the creation or interpretation of treaties and other forms of international agreement. For centuries, treaties have regulated relations among nation states. Today, they are the dominant source of international law. From trade relations to greenhouse gases, from shipwrecks to cybercrime, treaties structure the rights and obligations of states, international organizations, and individuals. Being adept with treaties and international agreements is thus an indispensable skill for anyone engaged in international relations, including international lawyers, diplomats, international organization officials, and representatives of non-governmental organizations. This second edition of the award-winning volume from Professor Duncan B. Hollis provides a comprehensive guide to treaties, shedding light on the rules and practices surrounding the making, interpretation, and operation of these instruments. Foundational issues are covered, from defining treaties and their alternatives, to examining current theorizations about the treaty in international law. Chapters review specific stages in the treaty's life-cycle, including formation, application, interpretation, and exit. Special issues associated with treaties involving the European Union and other international organizations are also included. A section sampling over four hundred actual treaty clauses complements these scholarly treatments. These real examples help illustrate different approaches treaty-makers can take on topics such as entry into force, languages, reservations, and amendments.

Offering a unique conceptual approach to the Law of Treaties this insightful Research Handbook not only sets out the foundational issues, but identifies tensions within the field, including formalism vs flexibility, integrity vs flexibility, and unifor

How does international law change? How does it adapt to meet global challenges in a volatile social and political context? The Many Paths of Change in International Law offers fresh, theoretically informed, and empirically rich answers to these questions. It traces drivers, conditions, and consequences of change across the different fields of international law and paints a complex and varied picture very much in contrast with the relatively static imagery prevalent in many accounts today. Drawing on inspirations from international law, international relations, sociology, and legal theory, this book explores how international law changes through means other than treaty-making. Highlighting the social dynamics through which different areas and institutional contexts have generated their own pathways, it presents a theoretical framework for tracing change processes and the conditions that affect their success. Based on this framework, each contribution illuminates the paths of change we observe in contemporary international law. The explorations centre on strategies, forms, forces, and social contexts and draw on primary source material and in-depth case studies. Overall, the volume offers a fascinating account of an international legal order in flux-with a dynamic not captured through traditional doctrinal lenses-and helps situate change processes and their varied implications in international law and politics. A relevant book for everyone wanting to understand change and its consequences in international law. This is an open access title. It is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International licence. It is available to read and download as a PDF version on the Oxford Academic platform.

This volume in the Lieber Studies series explores how the law of armed conflict is made and shaped. It examines the fundamental materials of the law of armed conflict, key actors and influences, the spaces where the law is made, as well as questions of unmaking.

International law is a social construct crafted by human endeavour to achieve or at least contribute to the achievement of goals perceived to be valuable or necessary to effective social relations. In effect, international law is no more than a facilitative process and so cannot have answers and conclusions of its own other than what lies within the ambitions of those who define the limits of the process. The essays collected together here reveal how international law facilitates the achievement of the long standing ambition of turning human rights ideals and rhetoric into reality.