The Roman Foundations of the Law of Nations makes the important but surprisingly under-explored argument that modern international law was built on the foundations of Roman law and Roman imperial practice. A pivotal figure in this enterprise was the Italian Protestant Alberico Gentili (1552-1608), the great Oxford Roman law scholar and advocate, whose books and legal opinions on law, war, empire, embassies and maritime issues framed the emerging structure of inter-state relations in terms of legal rights and remedies drawn from Roman law and built on Roman and scholastic theories of just war and imperial justice. The distinguished group of contributors examine the theory and practice of justice and law in Roman imperial wars and administration; Gentili's use of Roman materials; the influence on Gentili of Vitoria and Bodin and his impact on Grotius and Hobbes; and the ideas and influence of Gentili and other major thinkers from the 16th to the 18th centuries on issues such as preventive self-defence, punishment, piracy, Europe's political and mercantile relations with the Ottoman Empire, commerce and trade, European and colonial wars and peace settlements, reason of state, justice, and the relations between natural law and observed practice in providing a normative and operational basis for international relations and what became international law. This book explores how both the theory and the practice of international politics was framed in ways that built on these Roman private law and public law foundations, including concepts of rights. This history of ideas has continuing importance as European ideas of international law and empire have become global, partly accepted and partly contested elsewhere in the world.

The Roman Foundations of the Law of Nations: Alberico Gentili and the Justice of Empire

Kingsbury, Benedict

Straumann, Benjamin

Foreign & International Law

Oxford University Press

The use of indicators as a technique of global governance is increasing rapidly. Major examples include the World Bank's Doing Business Indicators, the World Bank's Good Governance and Rule of Law indicators, the Millennium Development Goals, and the indicators produced by Transparency International. Human rights indicators are being developed in the UN and regional and advocacy organizations. The burgeoning production and use of indicators has not, however, been accompanied by systematic comparative study of, or reflection on, the implications, possibilities, and pitfalls of this practice. This book furthers the study of these issues by examining the production and history of indicators, as well as relationships between the producers, users, subjects, and audiences of indicators. It also explores the creation, use, and effects of indicators as forms of knowledge and as mechanisms of making and implementing decisions in global governance. Using insights from case studies, empirical work, and theoretical approaches from several disciplines, the book identifies legal, policy, and normative implications of the production and use of indicators as a tool of global governance.

Governance by Indicators: Global Power through Classification and Rankings (Law and Global Governance)

Davis, Kevin

Fisher, Angelina

Engle Merry, Sally

Challenging views that have gained currency since the end of the Cold War, this study examines the history of the United Nations since 1945, its various roles in international relations and its approaches to peace-keeping and the use of force. The authors provide a basis for courses and debates on the UN. Appraising the organisation's past performance and future potential - and avoiding the fault of piety, as well as that of UN-bashing - they suggest that the United Nations can be most effective if there is frank recognition of the limits imposed on it by the heterogeneous international society within which it operates.

Presiding over a Divided World: Changing UN Roles, 1945-1993 (International Peace Academy Occasional Paper Series)

ROBERTS, ADAM

Lynne Rienner Pub

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