The limits of international law Goldsmith, Jack L.

Features : 1. Well-known and respected authors dispute the conventional legal understanding of international law--a powerful challenge to those who seek to use international law to solve the world's problems 2. Controversially claims that international law is too weak to improve the world in any significant way and that it primarily reflects the interests of powerful states 3. It integrates the study of international law with the realities of international politics, making it an ideal choice for study in both law schools and public policy graduate programs 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 about optimism international law's past accomplishments and present capacities.