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38 Harv. Int'l. L. J. 487 (1997)
International Relations and International Law: Two Optics

handle is hein.journals/hilj38 and id is 493 raw text is: VOLUME 38, NUMBER 2, SPRING 1997 International Relations and International Law: Two Optics* Robert 0. Keohane** The surprising thing about international law is that nations ever obey its strictures or carry out its mandates.1 Public international law appears to be quite a well articulated and complete legal order even though it is difficult to locate the authoritative origin or substantive voice of the system in any particular area. Each doctrine seems to free ride somewhat on this overall systemic image .... Thus the variety of references among these discursive areas always shrewdly locate the moment of authority and the application in practice elsewhere-perhaps behind us in process or before us in the institutions of dispute resolution.2 These quotations from international lawyers encapsulate some of the puzzlement that faces a political scientist trying to understand the political underpinnings of international law. Governments make a very large number of legal agreements, and, on the whole, their compliance with these agreements seems quite high.3 Yet what this level of com- pliance implies about the causal impact of commitments remains a mystery. If states' respect for international law is surprising or puzzling to eminent professors of the subject, it is probably more so to many political scientists. Traditionally, political scientists have styled them- selves as realistic rather than idealistic. They are utilitarians of one form or another. According to this view, elite states seek to maintain position, wealth, and power in an uncertain world by acquiring, re- * Originally given as a Sherrill Lecture at Yale University Law School on February 22, 1996. **James B. Duke Professor of Political Science, Duke University. President, International Studies Association, 1988-1989. B.A., Shimer College, 1961; Ph.D., Harvard University, 1966. This Comment was written while the author was a Fellow at the National Humanities Center, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina; he wishes to express his gratitude to the Center for intellectual stimulation and financial support. 1. Thomas M. Franck, Legitimacy in the International System, 82 AM. J. INT'L. L. 705, 705 (1988). 2. DAVID KENNEDY, INTERNAnONAL LEGAL STRUCrURES 293 (1987). 3. Louis HENKsN, How NAnONs BEHAVE: LAw AND FOREIGN PoLIcy (2d ed. 1979).

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