United States Hegemony and the Foundations of International Law

by Edited by Michael Byers , Georg Nolte

• ISBN13: 9780521819497
• ISBN10: 0521819490
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-06-30
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Successive hegemonic powers have shaped the foundations of international law. This book examines whether the predominance of the United States is leading to foundational change in the international legal system. A range of leading scholars in international law and international relations consider six foundational areas that could be undergoing change, including international community, sovereign equality, the law governing the use of force, and compliance. The authors demonstrate that the effects of US predominance on the foundations of international law are real, but also intensely complex. This complexity is due, in part, to a multitude of actors exercising influential roles. And it is also due to the continued vitality and remaining functionality of the international legal system itself. This system limits the influence of individual states, while stretching and bending in response to the changing geopolitics of our time.

Table of Contents

Foreword Michael Byers and Georg Nolte

Introduction: The complexities of foundational change Michael Byers

Part I. International Community: 1. The international community, international law and the United States: three in one, two against one or one and the same? Edward Kwakwa

2. The influence of the United States on the concept of the 'International Community' Andreas Paulus

Commentaries: Martti Koskenniemi, Volker Rittberger and Steven Ratner

Part II. Sovereign Equality: 3. Sovereign equality: the Wimbledon sails on Michel Cosnard

4. More equal than the rest? Hierarchy, equality and US predominance in international law Nico Krisch

Commentaries: Pierre-Marie Dupuy, Matthias Herdegen and Gregory Fox

Part III. Use of Force: 5. The use of force by the United States after the end of the Cold War and its impact on international law Marcelo Kohen

6. Bending the law, breaking it, or developing it? The United States and the humanitarian use of force in the post-Cold War era Brad Roth

Commentaries: Thomas Franck, Jochen Frowein and Daniel Thuerer

Part IV. Customary International Law: 7. Powerful but unpersuasive? The role of the USA in the evolution of customary international law Stephen Toope

8. Hegemonic custom Achilles Skordas

Commentaries: Rainer Hofmann, Andrew Hurrell and Rü

diger Wolfrum

Part V. Law of Treaties: 9. The effects of US predominance on the elaboration of treaty regimes and on the evolution of the law of treaties Pierre Klein

10. US reservations to human rights treaties: all for one and none for all? Catherine Redgwell

Commentaries: Jost Delbrueck, Alain Pellet and Bruno Simma

Part VI. Compliance: 11. Compliance: multilateral achievements and predominant powers Peter-Tobias Stoll

12. The impact on international law of US non-compliance Shirley Scott

Commentaries: Vaughan Lowe, David Malone and Christian Tomuschat

Conclusion Georg Nolte.