Is International Law International?

Katerina Linos, American Journal of International Law In her masterful work, Is International Law International?, Anthea Roberts convincingly shatters our illusions about international law's universality, and makes the case for comparison in international law. Having already won the American Society of International Law's prestigious Certificate of Merit, the book needs no further praise.

Kevin Crow, Journal of International Economic Law Roberts' work is essential reading for any international lawyer and, indeed, for anyone interested in better understanding international law.

Alessandra Asteriti, Italian Yearbook of International Law There is so much to be commended about this book. It reads almost like a novel, such is its engaging style and wealth of information and insights into the collective minds of international legal communities.

Miriam Bak McKenna, Nordic Journal of International Law 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 insight 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 counterclaim to international law's appeal to both universality and to neutrality.

Ryan Mitchell, The Modern Law Review 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.

ASIL 2018 Book Awards Committee Roberts turns a beguilingly simple question into a globe-trotting, multi-method quest for a map 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...

Anthea Roberts is Associate Professor in the School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet) at the Australian National University. She specializes in public international law, investment treaty law and arbitration, and comparative international law. Anthea previously taught at the London School of Economics as well as Columbia and Harvard Law Schools. She is on the Editorial Boards of the American Journal of International Law, the European Journal of International Law, ICSID Review, and the Journal of World Investment and Trade, and blogs for EJIL: Talk! She has twice won the Francis Deak Prize for the best AJIL article by a younger scholar. Anthea serves as a Reporter for the Restatement (Fourth) of the Foreign Relations Law of the United States, and has experience serving as an arbitrator, counsel, and expert in international disputes. She is also co-editor of Comparative International Law (with Paul B. Stephan, Pierre-Hugues Verdier, and Mila Versteeg), Oxford

List of FiguresList of TablesForeword by Martii KoskenniemiPrefaceAcknowledgmentsAbbreviations1: The Divisible College of International LawyersI. DifferenceII. DominanceIII. Disruption2: Project DesignI. General FrameworkII. The Actors and Materials StudiedIII. The States and Universities StudiedIV. Important Concepts and FactorsV. Three Points of Method3: Comparing International Law AcademicsI. The Global Flow of Students and IdeasII. Comparing Educational ProfilesIII. Comparing Publication PlacementsIV. Comparing Links Between Academia and Practice4: Comparing International Law Textbooks and CasebooksI. Preliminary Points of MethodII. The Nationalized/Denationalized DivideIII. Inconsistent ApproachesIV. A Tendency to Look WestV. A Lack of Diverse ComparativismVI. Divisions Between the Western and Non-Western BooksVII. Divisions Between Western Books5: Patterns of Difference and DominanceI. Comparing International Legal AcademiesII. Identifying Scholarly Silos and Attempts to ConnectIII. Identifying Patterns of Dominance6: Disruptions Leading to a Competitive World OrderI. Shifting to a Competitive World OrderII. Disagreements in Practice, Not Just Words ConclusionAppendix A. Academics Included in the StudyAppendix B. Scholars Referred to in Select Chinese and Russian International Law TextbooksAppendix C. Tables of Content for International Law TextbooksAppendix D. Chinese Research Funding by TopicBibliography*Books and ReportsBook ChaptersJournal Articles and Book ReviewsNewspapers, Magazines, and BlogsCasesInternet SourcesSpeeches and AudioStatutes, Government Statements and DecreesOtherIndex