Ebook: Purging the Odious Scourge of Atrocities: The Limits of Consent in International Law

"The introductory chapter outlines the issues raised in the subsequent five chapters. It argues that current theories regarding the sources of international law lack a foundation for explaining how states can be required to assume legal obligations that transcend state consent. In making this case, the chapter critiques attempts to expand the concept of customary international law to include certain types of legal norms that form over a short period of time without necessarily reflecting widespread, consistent state practice. Rather, it provides an overview of current theories on the sources of international law and examines how international law is directly connected to the four variables that characterize the structure of the international system: the nature of the constitutive units; the organizing principles of the system; the density of interaction among the units; and the scope and depth of institutionalization within the system"--