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Universalising International Law. By C. G. Weeramantry. Leiden, Boston: Martinus Nijhoff, 2004. Pp. xii, 538. Index. $181, euro145.
Christopher Weeramantry-former judge of the International Court of Justice, former law professorat Monash University in Australia, and before that, a judge in Sri Lanka-has long been in demand worldwide as a thoughtful speaker both on specific topics and on broad principles of international law. He can be relied upon to appeal to certain themes: the importance of drawing together diverse philosophical traditions in order to develop international law; international law as a path to peace; international law and the environment; international law and nuclear weapons; international law and technology; international law as a force for human dignity.1 As a judge on the ICJ, he was known for his separate and dissenting opinions, which were guaranteed to be scholarly and probing, informed by a cross-cultural understanding, and infused with a spirit of respect and decency.
His new book brings together many of his lectures and judgments, along with some fresh material, all of it synthesized through his principle of "universalisation" (on which more shortly). It is charmingly dedicated to the "young scholars of international law in the hope they will universalise their discipline and thereby bring it closer to the hearts and minds of the people of the entire world community, without whose understanding and support international law will achieve only a fraction of its potential." In many ways, this book is an older scholar's effort to inspire beginning scholars and practitioners to capture the field for the values that he has espoused throughout a life in the law. At one point, he talks about one of the "great enemies" of international law-namely the "feeling of impotence that often overcomes international lawyers" (p. 101). It is to students, the international lawyers of the future, that he looks for a "more confident attitude regarding the power of their discipline and a determination to raise it to its full stature as a prime instrument for the betterment of the human condition" (id.).
The structure of the book is as follows. It deals first with some "general perspectives" on "universalisation" (part A); it then suggests some "universalist" ways to approach the sources of international law (part B); it then turns to...