PAIL Institute Publications

PAIL Institute Monograph Series

Consent and Commitment in the World Community:  The Classification and Analysis of International Instruments

Author(s): Johnston, Douglas M.

Hardcover - 378 pages (1998)
ISBN: 1-57105-054-X

Price: US $105.00

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About This Publication

Consent and Commitment in the World Community: The Classification and Analysis of International Instruments is a profoundly important book. Eschewing the legal-positivist and state-centric orthodoxy that has long dominated thinking about the formation and legal effects of treaties and other transboundary agreements, it recommends an empirically-premised and functionally-oriented system for classifying such instruments that serves splendidly not only to promote intellectual order but, as well, to satisfy the operational needs of making and shaping public policy. It demonstrates remarkably well that there is nothing quite so practical as a good theory. And, along the way, with Talmudic-style footnotes -- providing every manner of useful example and keen insight -- the author treats us to penetrating explorations of international law in the past, present, and potential future of world order.

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About The Author(s)

Professor Douglas Johnston, one of Canada's most eminent international law scholars, is the author and editor of more than 25 books and monographs as well as numerous articles on legal theory, international law and relations, marine and environment policy. Professor Johnson is currently Deputy Chairman of the Policy Research Programme and coordinator of cross-disciplinary teaching and research and the National University of Singapore.

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Reviews

Robert E. Balton, American Journal of International Law
Douglas Johnston's Consent and Commitment in the World Community is an original and ambitious work that sets forth a new system for the classification of international instruments, a term that the author, a distinguished Canadian scholar teaching in Asia, uses to describe "the entire spectrum of seriously negotiated international instruments and not just those that are deemed to have 'binding effect'." The author's goal is to bring the law of treaties into a degree of harmony with current international practice, which he considers to manifest a trend toward increasing variation and away from the uniformity and formalism embodied in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties.

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The broad scope of the book is apparent from the outset. Not only does the expression "international instruments" appear in the subtitle, but he presents a core list of 138 "treaty and treaty-like instruments" to which his system of classification and analysis would apply. . . .

As a means of introducing his new framework for the analysis of treaty commitments and behavior (Chapter 3), Johnston discusses three competing models of international law —the litigational (which he associates with juridical interests), operational (which he associates with governmental interests), and societal models (which he associates with ethical values and implications). Against this background, he provides a functionalist analysis of the behavior of states with respect to bilateral agreements and other negotiated instruments. . . . The author then develops such terminology, which he explains in detail in the text; the accompanying tables enable the reader more readily to appreciate both the scope and effect of the classifications.

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The author has provided a valuable service by documenting the full range of instruments relied on by states and other entitites in seeking to achieve their international objectives . . ..

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Availability

Consent and Commitment in the World Community:  The Classification and Analysis of International Instruments is available from:

Transnational Publishers, Inc.
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Ardsley, New York 10502-2615

(914) 693-5100
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Consent and Commitment in the World Community:  The Classification and Analysis of International Instruments can be ordered online from Amazon.com.

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Table of Contents

The Table of Contents is not available for this publication.