International Law as the Law of Collectives

Presenting fresh perspectives on a range of contemporary issues in international law, this book draws on the work of major contributors to legal and political theory. Arguing that international law lacks the vocabulary to deal with the collective dimension and therefore perpetuates an individualistic vocabulary, the book develops and articulates a more appropriate collective approach for public international law. In doing so, it reframes longstanding problems such as the conflict between self-determination and the integrity of states and the effects and the limits of state sovereignty in an increasingly globalized world.

This book is concerned with how we can make sense of the confusing landscape of individualistic explanation in international law. Arguing that international law lacks the vocabulary to deal with the collective dimension and therefore perpetuates an individualistic vocabulary, the book develops and articulates a more appropriate collective approach for public international law. In doing so, it reframes longstanding problems such as the conflict between self-determination and the integrity of states and the effects and the limits of state sovereignty in an increasingly globalized world. Presenting fresh perspectives on a range of contemporary issues in international law, the book draws on the work of major contributors to legal and political theory.

' ...addresses one of the most important questions facing the world today: what are the proper boundaries between persons, peoples, and global justice? John Morss calls attention to the many areas of law in which all human beings belong to a single collective, with one justice to guide us and one international law to keep us safe'. Mortimer Sellers, University of Baltimore, USA 'At a time when renewed hope and anxiety surround the mobilization of peoples, whether as Netizens, Arab Spring crowds, or insurgents, John Morss provides an engaging and timely account of the grammars of the collective in legal thought, international legal thought especially. In a commanding revisitation of jurisprudential writing from the seventeenth century to the twenty-first, Morss re-orients that tradition adroitly around the collective. Collectives, Morss argues, are not merely aggregations of individualism, nor half-way houses to statehood. They merit close attention in their own right. Under Morss' guidance, reading international law for its plurals turns out to be wonderfully revelatory and suggestive. This book merits widespread and attentive reading.' Fleur Johns, University of Sydney and Co-Director, Sydney Centre for International Law, Australia

Autorentext
Dr John R. Morss is Senior Lecturer, School of Law, and member of the Centre for Citizenship and Globalization, at Deakin University, Australia.

Inhalt
Preface, 1 Law, People, Peoples, 2 From Hobbes to Rawls: Covenants, Social Contracts and the Law of Peoples, 3 Historiography of the Present: Collectives, Colonies and the Chronicle of International Law, 4 Grouphood, Rights and Waldron's Warning: Respecting the Collective, 5 Statehood, Consent, Complicity: Defining the Collective, 6 From Peoples to People? Self-determination, Identity, Territory, 7 Cultures, Attachments, Minorities, Movements, 8 International Relations and International Law: Rethinking Statehood and Sovereignty, 9 Toward a Law of People, References, Index