Realizing Whose Utopia? The Structure of Normative International Law Arguments

Abstract

Antonio Cassese’s last book is a massive compilation of forty-eight chapters written by some of the world’s leading international law scholars. The contributions discuss on-going and anticipated transformations of the discipline that the new generation of international lawyers are expected to witness in the course of their career. Eight contributions are written by or with the participation of Cassese himself, as the editor replaced several desisting contributors. Some other contributions, previously published elsewhere, are translated from Italian or French. The merits of the book have already been hailed, in particular through a collection of eight essays in the European Journal of International Law. The analyses offered by this book are perhaps not always revolutionary, but their gathering does much to take stock of existing debates that relate to multiple fields of international law. Realizing Utopia should be of interest to any international law scholar and could be recommended to some practitioners (diplomats, international civil servants, NGOs) interested in the evolution of international law.