This is the first comprehensive and systematic monograph on withdrawal from multilateral treaties, which explains the evolution of the concept of withdrawal and examines its increasing use over time. International scholars and policy makers have long addressed treaty making and treaty maintenance in light of the binary choice between compliance and breach, while leaving unregulated or at least under-regulated the actual act of withdrawal. In the age of global retrenchment, is there still room for international law to regulate the rules of the game, or will unilateral decisions overturn the current architecture of a multilateral global order?

This is the first comprehensive and systematic monograph on withdrawal from multilateral treaties, which explains the evolution of the concept of withdrawal and examines its increasing use over time. International scholars and policy makers have long addressed treaty making and treaty maintenance in light of the binary choice between compliance and breach, while leaving unregulated or at least under-regulated the actual act of withdrawal. In the age of global retrenchment, is there still room for international law to regulate the rules of the game, or will unilateral decisions overturn the current architecture of a multilateral global order?