Review
------
In what has already become an instant and award-winning classic of the international legal canon, Anthea
Roberts' Is International Law International? provides a welcome in into how international law is approached across
domestic contexts - a process she identifies as "comparative international law". ... Rather than asking that age old
question: Is international law, law?, she considers instead: Is international law international? In doing so, she issues
a powerful countercl to international law's appeal to both universality and to neutrality. (Miriam Bak McKenna,
Nordic Journal of International Law)
For a field already concerned with the problem of 'fragmentation' in legal regimes and conflicting norms, Roberts helps
to bring into view the human dimension of such changes in the form of fragmented, even to some degree mutually oblivious
communities of international lawyers in different national settings. The book effectively identifies and establishes the
importance of key (and sometimes surprising) differences in educational background, professional activities, linguistic
and networking characteristics, as well as the textbooks and scholarly authorities relied upon by these various
communities. (Ryan Mitchell, The Modern Law Review)
Roberts turns a beguilingly simple question into a globe-trotting, multi-method quest for a of international laws
players and meanings. Simultaneously irreverent and serious-minded, Roberts develops an original research agenda that
takes her and the reader through the migratory flows of international lawyers around the world, the divergent methods
through which they are educated, and the different professional tracks through which they are socialized. The book does
not just dissolve international laws myths of universality; it is a nascent sociology of the field of international law
and the beginning of a new field of comparative international law. In an era in which Western dominance over
international law no longer looks certain, this book provides the tools for a more nuanced understanding of
international laws politics, revealing the deeper meanings and stakes of current debates. (ASIL 2018 Book Awards
Committee)
I enjoyed reading this book tremendously and have kept coming back to the staggering view of the international law world
it offers over again. I am very serious when I say that nothing in the field will be quite the same after this book has
been published. It is such an eye-opener. (Martti Koskenniemi, Professor of International Law (University of Helsinki),
and Director, Erik Castrén Institute of International law and Human Rights)
According to a common stereotype, international lawyers are cosmopolitans. In this truly remarkable inquiry, Anthea
Roberts shows that their cosmopolitanism remains hostage to a world of nation-states. For Americans in particular, it is
disturbing to learn how international law in their country remains parochial. International lawyers across the spectrum
in the United States emerge from a particular intellectual sociology, from their professionalization in their practice,
even when they speak in a universalist voice - in the languages they (do not) learn, to the textbooks they use, and from
the foreign affairs and national security law from which they approach the field, to the concrete positions on matters
such as humanitarian intervention they take. Roberts has written a masterpiece. (Samuel Moyn, Professor of Law, Yale Law
School)
This book is a must-read for every international lawyer and negotiator. It thoroughly deconstructs the notion that there
is a uniform college of international lawyers who all think alike. It helps us to reflect on our own background and the
frame within which we think, and to also recognize and understand the 'others.' This is of utmost importance at a time
when international legal cooperation is threatened. (Anne van Aaken, Professor for Law and Economics, Legal Theory,
Public International Law, and European Law, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland)
Asking the disarming question of whether 'international law is international,' Anthea Roberts takes readers on an
ingenious tour of the global flow of people and ideas in international law, the role of nationalism and transnational
hierarchies in creating unequal and 'divisible colleges,' and the implications for foreign policy and for the future of
international law. The book is built on painstaking research into the educational background of international law
scholars, where they publish and in what languages, how international law casebooks and treatises differ both within the
'west' and from the materials in China and Russia. It is a stellar contribution to international law, the study of
globalization and legal education, comparative law, international relations, and the sociology of legal knowledge.
(Bryant Garth, Chancellor's Professor of Law and Co-Director, Center for Empirical Research on the Legal Profession,
University of California, Irvine School of Law, United States)
Roberts has raised a fundamental issue that both international lawyers and decision-makers cannot afford to ignore in
this era of shifting power. This issue is whether international law is 'international,' as people might have taken for
granted for decades or centuries, and how the 'international' is likely to evolve with the rise of new great powers,
like China. Her perspective is absolutely unique. Textbooks and casebooks, educational backgrounds, academic
publications, and connections to practice - factors that have a significant influence on how international lawyers
construct their understanding of the field but whose importance are often overlooked - are painstakingly collected,
well-organized and cogently analyzed to support her arguments. What Roberts exhibits, through this book, is not only the
strength of her academic in but her ability to recognize and understand the perspectives of others. (Cai Congyan,
Professor of international law of Xiamen University School of Law)
The results of Anthea Roberts's investigation sound an alarm for all stakeholders in the field of International Law: the
author calls on all of us to recognize the necessity of tearing down the of 'internationality' from the discipline
in its current state and paves the way for changes towards a truly international International Law. Thoughtful and
inspiring. (Vera Rusinova, Professor of the Chair for Public and Private International Law, National Research
University, The Higher School of Economics, Russia)
Roberts's groundbreaking study brings important and new ins into the sociology of the production of international
law. It charts the regional and cultural islands that dot this supposedly cosmopolitan sea and provides a deep critique
of the field's universalist aspirations/pretensions. It is essential reading for anyone interested in the international
law project, whether working from the inside or as an external observer. (Paul Stephan, John C. Jeffries, Jr.,
Distinguished Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law, United States)
Book Description
----------------
Winner of the ASIL 2018 Certificate of Merit for a preeminent contribution to creative scholarship.
