Over the past decades international affairs have been increasingly legalized. International law has dramatically expanded into new fields and taken on new challenges. Despite this development, there has been little in-depth scholarship on what impact these changes have had on the field of international legal theory, how it is taught, and where it is going. This volume investigates the major developments in the field and explores the core assumptions and concepts, analytical tools, and key challenges associated with different approaches. An outstanding team of legal academics provides an accessible overview of competing theoretical movements, and a more in-depth understanding of the strengths, preoccupations, insights, and limits of those schools of thought. The contributions provide an authoritative account of current thinking about the theoretical foundations of contemporary international law and will serve as an indispensable resource for students, scholars, and practitioners.

Part I. Introduction: Setting the stage: 1. International legal theory foundations and frontiers Jeffrey L. Dunoff and Mark A. Pollack; Part II. Traditional approaches to international law: 2. Natural law current contributions of the natural law tradition to international law Andreas Follesdal; 3. International legal positivism Jean d'Aspremont; 4. Legal realism and international law Gregory Shaffer; 5. Transnational legal process and the ¿new¿ new haven school Harold Hongju Koh; Part III. Critical approaches to international law: 6. Critical international legal theory Fleur Johns; 7. The agenda of third world approaches to international law James Gathii; 8. Feminist approaches to international law Karen Engle, Vasuki Nesiah, and Dianne Otto; Part IV. Post-cold war approaches to international law: 9. Global administrative law Lorenzo Casini; 10. Constitutionalism as theory Jan Klabbers; 11. Global legal pluralism Nico Krisch; Part V. Interdisciplinary approaches to international law: 12. Rationalist and behavior list approaches to international law Anne van Aaken; 13. The sociological perspective on international law Moshe Hirsch; 14. The practice of interpretation in international law strategies of critique Ingo Venzke; Part VI. International law: dialogue and dialectic: 15. Reflections on international legal theory and practice a conversation with Georges Abi-Saab Georges Abi-Saab; 16. Theory and practice two sides of the same coin Laurence Boisson de Chazournes; 17. International legal theory a dialogic conclusion Joseph H. H. Weiler.