Jus Cogens
International Law and Social Contract

This book provides a comprehensive political and legal examination of jus cogens, a complex doctrine essential to contemporary international society.

Thomas Weatherall (Author)

9781107442092, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 2 February 2017

554 pages
23 x 15.2 x 3 cm, 0.83 kg

'This short review does not allow for a more detailed analysis of this work, and cannot, therefore, do justice to Weatherall's extensive argumentation. While some readers may feel as though certain questions posed by the author remain unsettled, it is likely that the sheer complexity of this topic, which builds upon all of international law's foundational notions, makes such an impression inevitable. In sum, this book should be recommended: as the ILC is about to consider the first report of its Special Rapporeur on Jus Cogens, Weatherall's volume stands as an indispensable resource for the fascinating debates to come.' Sevrine Knuchel, Netherlands International Law Review

One of the most complex doctrines in contemporary international law, jus cogens is the immediate product of the socialization of the international community following the Second World War. However, the doctrine resonates in a centuries-old legal tradition which constrains the dynamics of voluntarism that characterize conventional international law. To reconcile this modern iteration of individual-oriented public order norms with the traditionally state-based form of international law, Thomas Weatherall applies the idea of a social contract to structure the analysis of jus cogens into four areas: authority, sources, content and enforcement. The legal and political implications of this analysis give form to jus cogens as the product of interrelation across an individual-oriented normative framework, a state-based legal order, and values common to the international community as a whole.

Introduction: peremptory norms of general international law (jus cogens)
1. The authority of jus cogens
2. Material and formal sources of jus cogens
3. Peremptory norms and the individual
4. Peremptory norms and the state
Conclusion: international law and social contract.

Subject Areas: Public international law [LBB], Jurisprudence & philosophy of law [LAB], Law [L], International relations [JPS], Social & political philosophy [HPS]