International Law: A Very Short Introduction

Citation

Lowe, V. (2015). International Law: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press.

Chapter Summary

The book is number 449 in Oxford's Very Short Introductions series and runs to about 130 pages: seven chapters of roughly 5 to 28 pages each, followed by a guide to further reading and an index. Its author, Vaughan Lowe, is Emeritus Chichele Professor of Public International Law at Oxford and practises as a barrister and arbitrator, advising governments and corporations on international law; he is also the author of a longer book, International Law (Oxford University Press, 2007). The publisher describes the aim as explaining what international law is, what role it plays in international society and how it operates, dispelling myths about it, and showing what it can and cannot do. Rather than surveying the subject topic by topic, the book uses problems such as terrorism, environmental change, poverty and international violence to show the theory and practice of international law. The terms that recur most often in the text, according to the list of common phrases in the Google Books record, include customary international law, treaties, the UN Charter and its Article 2(4), self-defence, the Security Council, jus ad bellum and jus in bello, human rights, the European Convention on Human Rights, CEDAW, torture, immunity, the International Criminal Court, the World Trade Organization, Iraq and Kosovo.

Chapter 1: Nations under law

The opening chapter, about eighteen pages long, introduces the idea of an international legal order binding states.

Chapter 2: Where does international law come from?

About twenty pages on the sources of international law: how rules binding states are made and identified.

Chapter 3: Implementing international law

About seventeen pages on how international law is put into effect once its rules exist.

Chapter 4: Freedom from external interference

At about twenty-eight pages the longest chapter, it is organised around the protection of states against outside interference.

Chapter 5: Sovereignty inside the State

About twenty pages on sovereignty seen from the inside: what a state may do within its own territory and how international law bears on it.

Chapter 6: What international law does well

A fifteen-page assessment of the areas in which international law works effectively. The publisher's description refers to its role in international co-operation.

Chapter 7: What international law does badly or not at all

A short closing chapter of about five pages on the limits and failures of international law.

Key Concepts

Chapters 1–3: The nature and making of international law

• International legal order: the idea that relations between states are governed by binding legal rules.
• Sources of international law: the ways in which international rules come into existence, principally treaties and customary international law.
• Implementation: how international obligations are given effect in practice.

Chapters 4–5: The two faces of sovereignty

• Freedom from external interference: the protection of a state against interference by other states.
• Sovereignty inside the State: the extent of a state's freedom of action within its own territory, and the limits that international law sets on it.

Chapters 6–7: Assessment

• Strengths of international law: the areas, such as co-operation between states, in which it functions effectively.
• Limits of international law: the problems it handles badly or does not address.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Brevity with authority. In about 130 pages a senior academic who also practises in international disputes explains the whole subject in outline. The book can be read in a few sittings before a course begins.
• An original organisation. Instead of the usual textbook sequence of sources, subjects, territory and so on, the central chapters are built around two aspects of sovereignty: protection against outside interference, and the freedom and limits a state has inside its own territory. This gives a beginner a single idea with which to connect many topics.
• A candid assessment. The last two chapters weigh what international law does well and what it does badly or not at all, matching the publisher's emphasis on dispelling myths and showing what international law can and cannot do.
• Problem-led. The publisher describes a focus on concrete problems, such as terrorism, environmental change, poverty and international violence, so that rules are met in the context of the issues that give rise to them.

Limitations

• Not a course textbook. Only seven chapters, without chapters on areas such as the law of the sea, state responsibility or the law of treaties as such, so the book cannot replace a full textbook for examination preparation.
• Uneven balance. The chapter on what international law does badly runs to about five pages, compared with about fifteen on what it does well.
• Dated examples. Published in 2015, the book cannot reflect developments of the following decade, and the publisher's description highlights issues of the 2000s, such as the Iraq War, Guantanamo and Darfur.

Where It Fits in the Course

This is the shortest and gentlest book in the public international law list, best read before or at the very start of a course. It gives the overall picture and the key questions, while the textbooks provide the detail.

Akehurst's Modern Introduction to International Law, now by Alexander Orakhelashvili, is the natural next step: a compact but complete textbook covering the whole syllabus in a positivist framework. Malcolm Shaw's International Law and the edited International Law under Malcolm Evans are fuller textbooks for depth and references. Brownlie's Principles of Public International Law, by James Crawford, is a treatise for reference and advanced work. Martti Koskenniemi's From Apology to Utopia is a theoretical study of the structure of international legal argument; Lowe's candid discussion of what international law does well and badly is a useful, accessible preparation for the questions Koskenniemi asks.

How to Use This Book

No legal training is assumed. The book suits students about to start a public international law module, students of politics and international relations, and general readers who want to understand debates about international law in the news.

A practical plan:

• Read it straight through before the course begins. At about 130 pages it can be read in two or three sittings; Chapters 1–3 give the vocabulary of sources and implementation that every textbook assumes.
• Return to Chapters 4 and 5 when the course reaches sovereignty, non-intervention, the use of force and human rights. Their paired titles present sovereignty from the outside and from the inside, a frame that links topics the textbooks treat separately.
• Use Chapters 6 and 7 for essay preparation. Questions about whether international law is really law, or whether it is effective, are a staple of essays, and these chapters offer a practitioner's view to test against the textbooks.
• Follow the further reading at the end for the next step, and move on to a full textbook such as Akehurst for the detailed rules.
• Update the examples. Since the book dates from 2015, set its arguments against more recent events and cases discussed in a current textbook.