Custom, Power and the Power of Rules: International Relations and Customary International Law [Paperback]

Michael Byers (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 13, 1999 | ISBN-10: 0521634083 | ISBN-13: 978-0521634083 0

This book sets out to explain the most foundational aspect of international law in international relations terms. By doing so it goes straight to the central problem of international law--that although legally speaking all States are equal, socially speaking they clearly are not. As such it is an ambitious and controversial book that will be of interest to all international relations scholars and students and practitioners of international law.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Byer's book is a provocative attempt to bring together international relations theory and the study of evolving customary international law, those unwritten, informal rules that are binding upon states. Recommended for upper-division undergraduates and above." Choice

Book Description

This book sets out to explain the most foundational aspect of international law in international relations terms. By doing so it goes straight to the central problem of international law--that although legally speaking all States are equal, socially speaking they clearly are not. As such it is an ambitious and controversial book which will be of interest to all international relations scholars and students and practitioners of international law.

Product Details

• Paperback: 276 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (March 13, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521634083
• ISBN-13: 978-0521634083
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,541,601 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a masterpiece in the future, April 4, 2001

By 

hitoshi nasu (nerima-ku, tokyo Japan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Custom, Power and the Power of Rules: International Relations and Customary International Law (Paperback)

As an international law student, I am much interested in the process generating international rules, especially international customary rules. And also, as a political science student, I have recognized the limitation to explain the customary process only through the discipline of international law. This book is in answer to such a consciousness of mine completely and in detail. In my thought, this book will be a masterpiece in the interdisciplinary approach between international law and international relations.

Specifically, this book contains plentiful precedent studies and deals with various issues relating to its subject. Hence I could learn much from this book. And the conclusion it reached as to the basis of the binding force of customary international law is held to be persuasive enough to make scholars in both disciplines understood clearly.

If you are to study international law or international relations or both in the new century and in the global society, you cannot help getting and reading this writing.