Recent wars and conflicts have raised the question of private property and commercial contract rights after the outbreak of armed conflicts. Do invading and occupying powers have the right to destroy and confiscate private property and ignore contract rights? Are residents of a war-torn countries and foreign investors alike protected by international laws that uphold commercial freedom? Who, and on what legal authority, decides cases over contested resources during or after armed conflict? War, Commerce, and International Law authoritatively explores these questions in the context of the relationship between war and commerce, on one hand, and international law, on the other.

James Thuo Gathii is the Associate Dean for Research and Scholarship and the Governor George E. Pataki Professor of International Commercial Law at Albany Law School, where he has been on the faculty since 2001. His research and expertise is in the areas of public international law, international economic law including law and development, international trade law as well as on issues of good governance and legal reform as they relate to the third world and sub-Saharan Africa in particular. Before joining Albany Law School, Professor Gathii taught at the Rutgers Business School. He was also a Crowe and Dunlevy Visiting International Law Professor at the University of Oklahoma's College of Law. Professor Gathii received his LL.B. from the University of Nairobi and his S.J.D. from Harvard Law School.

• Chapter 1: Four Relationships Between War and Commerce


• Chapter 2: The Effect of Conquest on Private Property and Contract Rights


• Chapter 3: The Effect of Occupation on Private Property and Contract Rights


• Chapter 4: The Creative Tension Between Commercial Freedom and Belligerent Rights


• Chapter 5: War, Investment and International Law


• Chapter 6: Slippages in the Public/Private in Resource Wars


• Chapter 7: Commercializing War: Private Military and Security Companies, Mercenaries and International Law