Justice among nations : a history of international law / Stephen C. Neff.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Neff, Stephen C., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

International law--History.

International law.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (640 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Massachusetts ; London, England : Harvard University Press, 2014.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Justice among Nations tells the story of the rise of international law and how it has been formulated, debated, contested, and put into practice from ancient times to the present. Stephen Neff avoids technical jargon as he surveys doctrines from natural law to feminism, and practice from the Warring States of China to the international criminal courts of today. Ancient China produced the first rudimentary set of doctrines. But the cornerstone of international law was laid by the Romans, in the form of universal natural law. However, as medieval European states encountered non-Christian peoples from East Asia to the New World, new legal quandaries arose, and by the seventeenth century the first modern theories of international law were devised. New challenges in the nineteenth century encompassed nationalism, free trade, imperialism, international organizations, and arbitration. Innovative doctrines included liberalism, the nationality school, and solidarism. The twentieth century witnessed the League of Nations and a World Court, but also the rise of socialist and fascist states and the advent of the Cold War. Yet the collapse of the Soviet Union brought little respite. As Neff makes clear, further threats to the rule of law today come from environmental pressures, genocide, and terrorism.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

I Law and Morality Abroad (to ca. ad 1550)

Chapter one Doing Justice to Others

Chapter two Keeping Kings in Check

Chapter three New Worlds and Their Challenges

II Reason and Its Rivals (ca. 1550- 1815)

Chapter four Putting Nature and Nations Asunder

Chapter five Of Spiders and Bees

III A Positive Century (1815-1914)

Chapter six Breaking with the Past

Chapter seven Dissident Voices

Chapter eight In Full Flower

IV Between Yesterday and Tomorrow (1914- )

Chapter nine Dreams Born and Shattered

Chapter ten Building Anew

Chapter eleven Shadows across the Path

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliographic Essay

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780674727878

0674727878

9780674726543

0674726545

OCLC:

871257617