Mary Ellen O'Connell, The Art of Law in the International Community, Cambridge University Press, May 2019

Abstract

Professor Mary-Ellen O’Connell, in her new book, The Art of Law in the International Community, packs the tale of an extra-positive approach to law-making back at the centre of the stage. The book attempts to consider the of the community to explain the rise of two pillars of contemporary international law, namely the legal regulation of the use of force and the rules (or more precisely the meta-rules) on jus cogens. The book shifts steadily towards the intersection between natural law, jus cogens, and the ban of unilateral use of force. Methodologically speaking, the two regimes intersect since both are off springs of the UN Charter and the 1969 Vienna Convention. Perhaps not in the same trend of state practice, both principles formulate the general principle of international law. In sum, they add a small group of rules which feature the new world order in the aftermath of World War II.