Justice among Nations : : A History of International Law / / Stephen C. Neff.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter EBOOK PACKAGE Complete Package 2014
• VerfasserIn: Neff, Stephen C.,
• Place / Publishing House: Cambridge, MA : : Harvard University Press, , [2014]; ©2014
• Year of Publication: 2014
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (640 p.)

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.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- 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