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Jeremy A. Rabkin - Law without Nations?: Why Constitutional Government Requires Sovereign States - 9780691130552 - V9780691130552
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Law without Nations?: Why Constitutional Government Requires Sovereign States

€ 58.31
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Description for Law without Nations?: Why Constitutional Government Requires Sovereign States Paperback. What authority does international law really have for the United States? When and to what extent should the United States participate in the international legal system? This book provides an insight into these questions. It traces the traditional American wariness of international law to the basic principles of American thought. Num Pages: 360 pages, black & white illustrations. BIC Classification: 1KBB; LBG; LND. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational; (U) Tertiary Education (US: College). Dimension: 229 x 152 x 18. Weight in Grams: 485.
What authority does international law really have for the United States? When and to what extent should the United States participate in the international legal system? This forcefully argued book by legal scholar Jeremy Rabkin provides an insightful new look at this important and much-debated question. Americans have long asked whether the United States should join forces with institutions such as the International Criminal Court and sign on to agreements like the Kyoto Protocol. Rabkin argues that the value of international agreements in such circumstances must be weighed against the threat they pose to liberties protected by strong national authority and institutions. He maintains that the protection of these liberties could be fatally weakened if we go too far in ceding authority to international institutions that might not be zealous in protecting the rights Americans deem important. Similarly, any cessation of authority might leave Americans far less attached to the resulting hybrid legal system than they now are to laws they can regard as their own. Law without Nations? traces the traditional American wariness of international law to the basic principles of American thought and the broader traditions of liberal political thought on which the American Founders drew: only a sovereign state can make and enforce law in a reliable way, so only a sovereign state can reliably protect the rights of its citizens. It then contrasts the American experience with that of the European Union, showing the difficulties that can arise from efforts to merge national legal systems with supranational schemes. In practice, international human rights law generates a cloud of rhetoric that does little to secure human rights, and in fact, is at odds with American principles, Rabkin concludes. A challenging and important contribution to the current debates about the meaning of multilateralism and international law, Law without Nations? will appeal to a broad cross-section of scholars in both the legal and political science arenas.

Product Details

Publisher
Princeton University Press United States
Number of pages
360
Format
Paperback
Publication date
2007
Condition
New
Weight
485g
Number of Pages
360
Place of Publication
New Jersey, United States
ISBN
9780691130552
SKU
V9780691130552
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 7 to 11 working days
Ref
99-1

About Jeremy A. Rabkin
Jeremy A. Rabkin is Professor of Government at Cornell University, where he teaches courses on international law and American constitutional history.

Reviews for Law without Nations?: Why Constitutional Government Requires Sovereign States
[A] forceful defense of the virtues of national sovereignty... Law without Nations? is readable and persuasive.
Thomas Nagel, New Republic [A] learned and closely-argued book... His argument is rich in scholarship, detail and nuance.
Peter Berkowitz, Policy Review Rabkin has skillfully and intrepidly outlined the main problems, including the dangerous embrace of 'soft law' and the hobbling of the right of states to self-defense... [T]he present volume should be required reading.
Michla Pomerance, Azure

Goodreads reviews for Law without Nations?: Why Constitutional Government Requires Sovereign States


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