International Organizations as Law-Makers (Oxford Monographs in International Law) - Hardcover

Alvarez, Jose E.; Alvarez, Jos E.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198765622 ISBN 13: 9780198765622

Publisher: OUP Oxford, 2005

Synopsis

International Organizations as Law-makers addresses how international organizations with a global reach, such as the UN and the WTO, have changed the mechanisms and reasoning behind the making, implementation, and enforcement of international law. Alvarez argues that existing descriptions of international law and international organizations do not do justice to the complex changes resulting from the increased importance of these institutions after World War II, and especially from changes after the end of the Cold War. In particular, this book examines the impact of the institutions on international law through the day to day application and interpretation of institutional law, the making of multilateral treaties, and the decisions of a proliferating number of institutionalized dispute settlers.

The introductory chapters synthesize and challenge the existing descriptions and theoretical frameworks for addressing international organizations. Part I re-examines the law resulting from the activity of political organs, such as the UN General Assembly and Security Council, technocratic entities within UN specialized agencies, and international financial institutions such as the IMF, and considers their impact on the once sacrosanct 'domestic jurisdiction' of states, as well as on traditional conceptions of the basic sources of international law. Part II assesses the impact of the move towards institutions on treaty-making. It addresses the interplay between negotiating venues and procedures and interstate cooperation and asks whether the involvement of international organizations has made modern treaties 'better'. Part III examines the proliferation of institutionalized dispute settlers, from the UN Secretary General to the WTO's dispute settlement body, and re-examines their role as both settlers of disputes and law-makers. The final chapter considers the promise and the perils of the turn to formal institutions for the making of the new kinds of 'soft' and 'hard' global law, including the potential for forms of hegemonic international law.

About this title

Review:

Jose Alvarez is a rare bird in the scholarly aviary of international organization: he moves effortlessly between politics and the law. International Organizations as Law-makers is authoritative but easy to read, an exceptional text for courses in international relations as well as international law. (Thomas G. Weiss, Presidential Professor and Director, Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies, The CUNY Graduate Center)

About the Author:

José E. Alvarez is Professor at Columbia Law School, where he teaches courses on international law, foreign investment, international legal theory, and international organizations, and is executive director of the Center on Global Legal Problems. Prior to entering academia in 1989, Professor Alvarez was an attorney adviser with the Office of the Legal Adviser of the U.S. Department of State. While in the State Department, he worked on arbitrations before the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal, served on the negotiation teams for bilateral investment treaties and the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, and was legal adviser to the administration of justice program in Latin America coordinated by the Agency of International Development. Professor Alvarez has also been in private practice and served as a judicial clerk on the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

About this edition

• Publisher: OUP Oxford
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0198765622
• ISBN 13: 9780198765622
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 712