An Introduction: International Law as Law

InternatIonal Soft law

Although the concept of soft law has existed for years, scholars have not reached consensus on why states use soft law or even whether “soft law” is a coherent analytic category. In part, this confusion reflects a deep diversity in both the types of international agreements and the strategic situations that produce them. In this paper, we advance four complementary explanations for why states u...

On Teaching International Law

Law as an Academic Discipline

Although the vast majority of law school graduates are practising lawyers (or judges), the place of law schools at universities is never questioned. Law schools are clearly professional schools charged with the task of conveying the knowledge, the skills and also the ethical commitments germane to the legal vocation. But is law really an academic discipline? At first glance, the answer is obvio...

Application of Lex Mercatoria as Applicable Law in International Commercial Arbitration

In settling disputes regarding international commercial arbitration the parties may instead of choosing the law of one country to choose lex mercatoria or the law of merchants as a applicable law to the disputes. When this choice is possible that applicable choice of law rules recognize such power for the parties. The principle of autonomy is choosing lex mercatoria has been recognized in many ...

Symposium Creativity and the Law Introduction: Creativity and the Law

Creativity is on the American mind. President Obama routinely suggests that creativity and ingenuity are the keys to America’s economic future.1 Bill Gates emphasizes the power of creativity to solve the world’s most pressing, and most difficult, problems.2 But the creativity story is, of late, usually bleakly told: indeed, a recent Newsweek cover story proclaimed a “Creativity Crisis.”3 Last N...