Foreword
Chapter I - The Ambivalences of the International Legal Order
I. International law - A great story?
II. Is internation law "law"?
III. Who can interpret international law and how?
Part One - The Subjects of the International Legal Order
Chapter II - The Creation of States
I. Is statehood a question of fact? The theory of constitutive elements and its ambiguities
II. The creation of a state: a question of law?
III. Declaratory or constitutive recognition of states?
IV. State succession: what role does law play?
Chapter III - State Borders
I. Agreement as the fundamental criterion for delimitation: the relative character of borders
II. The principle of uti possidetis juris: a substitute for agreement?
III. The case of maritime and spatial frontiers: sea and space, "common heritage of mankind" or spaces to be shared among states?
Chapter IV - The Exercise of Sovereignty
I. Sovereignty framed by law: a paradox?
II. The national jurisdictions of states confronted with requirements of cooperation
III. The principle of non-intervention: a general limit to states' exercise of their sovereignty?
IV. Immunities as specific limits on the exercise of sovereignty: between the interests of states and aspirations to a universal morality
Chapter V - International Organizations
I. The definition of international organizations and their legal personality: institutions per se or merely the product of agreements among states?
II. The powers of international organizations: attributed by states or autonomous?
III. The United Nations, embodiment of the international community?
Chapter VI - Private Persons
I. The development of human rights: the scope and limits of universality
II. The mechanisms of implementation: beyond the state?
III. The development of obligations for individuals: a law of the "international community"?
Part Two - The Sources of International Law
Chapter VII - Custom
I. The place of custom in the system of sources of international law: the tension between voluntarist and objectivist approaches
II. The constituent elements of custom: how can fact become law?
III. The evolution of custom: the paradoxes of a source that is both dynamic and stabilizing
Chapter VIII - Treaties
I. The definition and validity of treaties: is agreement a construction?
II. The conditions of conclusion, termination, or suspension of treaty obligations: an objective regime?
III. The principle of the relativity of treaties and its limits
Chapter IX - Other Sources of International Law
I. Unilateral declarations: an autonomous source?
II. The acts of international organizations: secondary law?
III. The "general principles of law": an autonomous source?
IV. Judicial precedent and legal writings: “subsidiary means for the determination of rules of law”?
Part Three - The Implementation of International Law
Chapter X - International Law and War
I. The scope of the prohibition of the use of force: jus contra bellum or jus ad bellum?
II. Self-defence as an “inherent right”?
III. The law of armed conflict (jus in bello): can war be humanized?
Chapter XI - International Responsability
I. Difficulties in attributing conduct to a state
II. Recognition of “circumstances precluding wrongfulness”: the primacy of politics?
III. The random implementation of international responsibility
IV. The limited responsibility of international organizations
Chapter XII - Peaceful Settlement of Disputes
I. An autonomous legal principle?
II. A sovereign right: a free choice between peaceful means of settlement?
III. Limitation by law? The International Court of Justice as a universal court
IV. The development of means of dispute settlement and areas of international law: towards a fragmentation of international law?
List of Maps and Illustrations
Selective Bibliography