The Health of Nations
Society and Law beyond the State

This book explores the social and legal implications of globalisation in terms of the general theory of society and law.

Philip Allott (Author)

9780521016803, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 31 October 2002

454 pages
22.8 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm, 0.739 kg

'… this is a profoundly thought-provoking work. The scope of this book is immense and panoptic … all of what is written is engaging … this is an enjoyable and thought-provoking book. Allott's work has always broken the mould of international legal scholarship in this country, and this book is no exception. The application of his general philosophy to more concrete legal issues is very welcome and will permit the dissemination of his ideas to a wider audience. Even if they disagree with Allott's philosophy, professional and academic international lawyers, as well as students of international law, should read this book and seriously reconsider both the current state of their discipline and how they can move it forward. They will find that it has much to offer them.' Public Law

The human world is changing. Old social structures are being overwhelmed by forces of social transformation which are sweeping across political and cultural frontiers. A social animal is becoming the social species. The animal that lives in packs and herds (family, corporation, nation, state) is becoming a member of a human society which is the society of all human beings, the society of all societies. The age-old problems of social life - religious, philosophical, moral, political, legal, economic - must now be addressed at the level of the whole species, and the level where all cultures and traditions meet and will contribute to an exhilarating and hazardous new form of human self-evolving. In this book Philip Allott explores the social and legal implications and potentialities of these developments in the light of the general theory of society and law which is proposed in his groundbreaking Eunomia: New Order for a New World.

Preface
Part I. Society and Law: 1. The will to know and the will to power: theory and moral responsibility
2. The phenomenon of law
3. Globalization from above: actualizing the ideal through law
4. The nation as mind politic: the making of the public mind
5. New enlightenment: the public mind of all-humanity
Part II. European Society and its Law: 6. European governance and the re-branding of democracy
7. The crisis of European constitutionalism: reflections on a half-revolution
8. The concept of European Union: imagining the unimagined
9. The conversation that we are: the seven lamps of European unity
Part III. International Society and its Law: 10. The concept of international law
11. International law and the idea of history
12. Intergovernmental societies and the idea of constitutionalism
13. International law and the international Hofmafia: towards a sociology of diplomacy
14. International law and international revolution: re-conceiving the world
Index.

Subject Areas: Jurisprudence & general issues [LA]