Law at the Vanishing Point A Philosophical Analysis of International Law

Two central questions are at the core of international legal theory: 'What is international law?', and 'Is international law really law?' This volume examines these critical questions and the philosophical foundations of modern international law using the tools of Anglo-American legal theory and western political thought. Engaging with both contemporary and historical legal theory and with an analysis of international law in action, the book builds an understanding and theory of law from the perspective of those who actually use this legal system and understand it, rather than constructing an artificial system from the standpoint of political scientists and moral philosophers. Law at the Vanishing Point provides a fascinating new challenge to those who reduce international law either to ethics or to politics and provides a critical new appraisal of its power as an independent force in human social relations.

Introduction The Future and Legal Theory; Chapter 1 Skepticism Towards International Law; Chapter 2 Conceptualizing International Law; Chapter 3 Voluntarism and Natural Law; Chapter 4 International Legal Personality; Chapter 5 Humanitarian Intervention; Chapter 6 Empiricism and the Reality of International Law; Chapter 7 Pinochet and Nicaragua; Chapter 8 The Prescriptive Realists; conclution Conclusion;

Professor Fichtelberg specializes in International Criminal Justice, Comparative Criminal Justice, and Legal Theory, in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, University of Delaware. He has published widely on aspects of International Criminal Law, and International Criminal Justice. He is the author of the textbook `Crimes Without Borders: An Introduction to International Criminal Justice'.