The Perils Of Global Legalism

Download or read book The Perils of Global Legalism written by Eric A. Posner and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2009-10-15 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first months of the Obama administration have led to expectations, both in the United States and abroad, that in the coming years America will increasingly promote the international rule of law—a position that many believe is both ethically necessary and in the nation’s best interests. With The Perils of Global Legalism, Eric A. Posner explains that such views demonstrate a dangerously naive tendency toward legalism—an idealistic belief that law can be effective even in the absence of legitimate institutions of governance. After tracing the historical roots of the concept, Posner carefully lays out the many illusions—such as universalism, sovereign equality, and the possibility of disinterested judgment by politically unaccountable officials—on which the legalistic view is founded. Drawing on such examples as NATO’s invasion of Serbia, attempts to ban the use of land mines, and the free-trade provisions of the WTO, Posner demonstrates throughout that the weaknesses of international law confound legalist ambitions—and that whatever their professed commitments, all nations stand ready to dispense with international agreements when it suits their short- or long-term interests. Provocative and sure to be controversial, The Perils of Global Legalism will serve as a wake-up call for those who view global legalism as a panacea—and a reminder that international relations in a brutal world allow no room for illusions.

Download or read book The Executive Unbound written by Eric A. Posner and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-03-16 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ever since Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. used "imperial presidency" as a book title, the term has become central to the debate about the balance of power in the U.S. government. Since the presidency of George W. Bush, when advocates of executive power such as Dick Cheney gained ascendancy, the argument has blazed hotter than ever. Many argue the Constitution itself is in grave danger. What is to be done? The answer, according to legal scholars Eric Posner and Adrian Vermeule, is nothing. In The Executive Unbound, they provide a bracing challenge to conventional wisdom, arguing that a strong presidency is inevitable in the modern world. Most scholars, they note, object to today's level of executive power because it varies so dramatically from the vision of the framers. But there is nothing in our system of checks and balances that intrinsically generates order or promotes positive arrangements. In fact, the greater complexity of the modern world produces a concentration of power, particularly in the White House. The authors chart the rise of executive authority straight through to the Obama presidency. Political, cultural and social restraints, they argue, have been more effective in preventing dictatorship than any law. The executive-centered state tends to generate political checks that substitute for the legal checks of the Madisonian constitution.

Download or read book Progress in International Law written by Russell A. Miller and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2008 with total page 945 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Progress in International Law" is a comprehensive accounting of international law for our times. Forty leading international law theorists analyze the most significant current issues in international law and their critical assessments draw diverse conclusions about the current state and future prospects of international law. The material is grouped under the headings: The History and Theory of International Law; The Sources of International Law and Their Application in the United States; International Actors; International Jurisdiction and International Jurisprudence; The Use of Force and the World's Peace; and The Challenge of Protecting the Environment and Human Rights. The book draws its inspiration from a similar survey undertaken in 1932 by Harvard Law Professor and PCIJ Judge Manley O. Hudson. In his book "Progress in International Organization," Hudson sought to demonstrate that what he perceived as an emerging international infrastructure, and as moves toward the rule of law in international affairs, were sure signs of human progress towards peace and cooperation. "Progress in International Law" critically engages with that claim as a normative matter and, at the same time, presents the evidence by which a judgment about our own progress towards peace and cooperation might be judged.

Download or read book The Limits of International Law written by Jack L. Goldsmith and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2005-02-03 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: International law is much debated and discussed, but poorly understood. Does international law matter, or do states regularly violate it with impunity? If international law is of no importance, then why do states devote so much energy to negotiating treaties and providing legal defenses for their actions? In turn, if international law does matter, why does it reflect the interests of powerful states, why does it change so often, and why are violations of international law usually not punished? In this book, Jack Goldsmith and Eric Posner argue that international law matters but that it is less powerful and less significant than public officials, legal experts, and the media believe. International law, they contend, is simply a product of states pursuing their interests on the international stage. It does not pull states towards compliance contrary to their interests, and the possibilities for what it can achieve are limited. It follows that many global problems are simply unsolvable. The book has important implications for debates about the role of international law in the foreign policy of the United States and other nations. The authors see international law as an instrument for advancing national policy, but one that is precarious and delicate, constantly changing in unpredictable ways based on non-legal changes in international politics. They believe that efforts to replace international politics with international law rest on unjustified optimism about international law's past accomplishments and present capacities.

Download or read book Crime and Global Justice written by Daniele Archibugi and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2018-03-16 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the last quarter of a century a new system of global criminal justice has emerged. But how successful has it been? Are we witnessing a new era of cosmopolitan justice or are the old principles of victors’ justice still in play? In this book, Daniele Archibugi and Alice Pease offer a vibrant and thoughtful analysis of the successes and shortcomings of the global justice system from 1945 to the present day. Part I traces the evolution of this system and the cosmopolitan vision enshrined within it. Part II looks at how it has worked in practice, focusing on the trials of some of the world’s most notorious war criminals, including Augusto Pinochet, Slobodan Milošević, Radovan Karad ić, Saddam Hussein and Omar al-Bashir, to assess the efficacy of the new dynamics of international punishment and the extent to which they can operate independently, without the interference of powerful governments and their representatives. Looking to the future, Part III asks how the system’s failings can be addressed. What actions are required for cosmopolitan values to become increasingly embedded in the global justice system in years to come?

Download or read book The Twilight of Human Rights Law written by Eric Posner and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014-10-01 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Countries solemnly intone their commitment to human rights, and they ratify endless international treaties and conventions designed to signal that commitment. At the same time, there has been no marked decrease in human rights violations, even as the language of human rights has become the dominant mode of international moral criticism. Well-known violators like Libya, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan have sat on the U.N. Council on Human Rights. But it's not just the usual suspects that flagrantly disregard the treaties. Brazil pursues extrajudicial killings. South Africa employs violence against protestors. India tolerate child labor and slavery. The United States tortures. In The Twilight of Human Rights Law--the newest addition to Oxford's highly acclaimed Inalienable Rights series edited by Geoffrey Stone--the eminent legal scholar Eric A. Posner argues that purposefully unenforceable human rights treaties are at the heart of the world's failure to address human rights violations. Because countries fundamentally disagree about what the public good requires and how governments should allocate limited resources in order to advance it, they have established a regime that gives them maximum flexibility--paradoxically characterized by a huge number of vague human rights that encompass nearly all human activity, along with weak enforcement machinery that churns out new rights but cannot enforce any of them. Posner looks to the foreign aid model instead, contending that we should judge compliance by comprehensive, concrete metrics like poverty reduction, instead of relying on ambiguous, weak, and easily manipulated checklists of specific rights. With a powerful thesis, a concise overview of the major developments in international human rights law, and discussions of recent international human rights-related controversies, The Twilight of Human Rights Law is an indispensable contribution to this important area of international law from a leading scholar in the field.

Download or read book Legalism written by Georgy Kantor and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume brings together anthropologists and historians to examine how property and ownership operate and are understood across contexts ranging from Roman provinces to modern-day piracy in Somalia. Among other things it examines the way legal property regimes intertwine with economic, moral-ethical, and political prerogatives.