Repetition as Reform: Georges Abi-Saab Cours General de droit international public

Abstract

The cours geniral enjoys a special place within the academic discipline of international law. It is given every year as a three-week series of lectures during the Hague Academy's summer session by an accomplished professor, often the doyen of some national community of international lawyers. To be requested to give the general course is a recognition of one's having entered the discipline's hall of fame — as attested to by the photograph of the lecturer printed at the front of the lectures. From the lecturer's perspective, the general course provides a unique opportunity to ' outline a grand theory or to give a principled statement about international law as a whole, or perhaps to present a summary of one's life's work in the field. During the inter-war era, many of the courses were dedicated to completely theoretical or philosophical topics, such as the 'basis of obligation' or the place of natural law (including 'fundamental rights') in international law. Many were at least as much works of philosophy or legal or political theory (and some even much more so) than expositions of positive international legal norms. After the general turn to pragmatism in the 19 50s and 19 60s, a change in the style of the general course in the Hague took place. Gone are the speculations about natural law as the 'basis of obligation'. The only theory espoused seems to be the policy-oriented 'theory' of the social conception of law (i.e. realism). Often theory is reduced into a few generalities in the first pages of the published course which seek a