This critical overview of current thinking about the theoretical foundations of international law makes a complex subject accessible. The chapters provide authoritative accounts of the strengths, preoccupations, insights, and limits of leading theoretical approaches to international law.

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.