Shaping Foreign Policy in Times of Crisis
The Role of International Law and the State Department Legal Adviser

All ten of the living former U.S. State Department legal advisers from the Carter administration to that of George W. Bush examine the role international law played during the major crises on their watch.

Michael P. Scharf (Author), Paul R. Williams (Author)

9780521766807, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 11 January 2010

322 pages
23.4 x 15.9 x 2.4 cm, 0.63 kg

'This book offers a valuable and timely contribution to the ongoing and by necessity, open-ended discourse on the influence of international law and legal advisers, on the formulation and implementation of foreign policy and diplomacy.' Andre Stemmet, Global Law Books (globallawbooks.org)

Shaping Foreign Policy in Times of Crisis grew out of a series of meetings that the authors convened with all ten of the living former U.S. State Department legal advisers (from the Carter administration to that of George W. Bush). Based on their insider accounts of the role that international law actually played during the major crises on their watch, the book explores whether international law is real law or just a form of politics that policymakers are free to ignore whenever they perceive it to be in their interest to do so. Written in a style that will appeal to the casual reader and serious scholar alike, the book includes a foreword by the Obama administration's State Department legal adviser, Harold Koh; background on the theoretical underpinnings of the compliance debate; an in-depth case study of the treatment of detainees in the war on terror; and a comprehensive glossary of the terms, names, places, and events that are discussed in the book.

Foreword: America's conscience on international law Harold Hongju Koh
1. The compliance debate
2. A brief history of L
3. The path to L
4. The Carter administration - Herbert J. Hansell
5. The Carter administration - Roberts B. Owen
6. The Reagan administration - Davis R. Robinson
7. The Reagan administration and Bush administration - Abraham D. Sofaer
8. The Bush (42nd) administration - Edwin D. Williamson
9. The Bush (42nd) administration - Michael J. Matheson
10. The Clinton administration - Conrad K. Harper
11. The Clinton administration - David R. Andrews
12. The Bush (44th) administration - William H. Taft IV
13. The Bush (44th) administration - John B. Bellinger III
14. State department legal adviser's roundtable
15. Foreign legal adviser's roundtable
16. Lawyering the treatment of detainees in the war on terrorism
17. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Laws of Specific jurisdictions [LN], Public international law [LBB], International relations [JPS]