Search results

The surprising thing about international law is that nations ever obey its strictures or carry out its mandates. This observation is made not to register optimism that the half-empty glass is also half full, but to draw attention to a pregnant phenomenon: that most states observe systemic rules much of the time in their relations with other states. That they should do so is much more interesting than, say, the fact that most citizens usually obey their nation's laws, because the international system is organized in a voluntarist fashion, supported by so little coercive authority. This unenforced rule system can obligate states to profess, if not always to manifest, a significant level of day-to-day compliance even, at times, when that is not in their short-term self-interest. The element of paradox attracts our attention and challenges us to investigate it, perhaps in the hope of discovering a theory that can illuminate more generally the occurrence of voluntary normative compliance and even yield a prescription for enhancing aspects of world order.

Abbreviations: Ann. sc. pol., Annates des sciences politiques, Paris; Ann. Vie Int., Annuaire de la Vie Internationale, Brussels; Arch, dipl., Archives Diplomatiques, Paris; B., boletin, bulletin, bolletino; P. A. U., bulletin of the Pan American Union, Washington; Clunet, J. de Dr. Int. Prive, Paris; Doc. dipl., France, Documents diplomatiques; B. Rel. Ext., Boletin de Relaciones Exteriores; Dr., droit, diritto, derecho; D. 0., Diario Oficial; For. rel., Foreign Relations of the United States; Ga., gazette, gaceta, gazzetta; Cd., Great Britain, Parliamentary Papers; Int., international, internacional, internazionale; J., journal; J. O.,Journal Officiel, Paris; Vint. Sc, L'Internationalism Scientifique, The Hague; Mim. dipl., Memorial diplomatique, Paris; Monit., Moniteur beige, Brussels; N. R. G., Nouveau recueil generate de traites, Leipzig; Q. dipl., Questions diplomatiques et coloniales; R., review, revista, revue, rivista; Reichs G., Reichs-Gesetzblatt, Berlin; Stoats., Staatsblad, Groningen; State Papers, British and Foreign State Papers, London; Stat, at L., United States Statutes at Large; Titnes, the Times (London); Treaty ser., Great Britain, Treaty series.

The author develops a new perspective for the study of problems of international order by drawing on and integrating insights from game theory, social psychology, hermeneutics, and language philosophy.