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10 Transnat'l L. & Contemp. Probs. 1 (2000)
Is There Really Law in International Affairs

handle is hein.journals/tlcp10 and id is 15 raw text is: Is There Really Law in International Affairs? John R. Bolton* I. Is It Law or Isn't It? .................................................................................. 2 II. W hy Does It M atter? .................................................................................. 8 A. The Rhetorical Value of the Word Law. ........................................... 9 B. The Unique International Status of the United States .................... 15 C. The Implications of Domesticizing International Law .................. 26 D. Restraining the United States From Using Its Military Power ........... 37 1. The Case of Former Yugoslavia ................................................... 38 2. International Justice. ............................................................... 43 3. Arm s Control ................................................................................. 47 III. Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 48 It is hard to imagine a more desperately tedious-sounding topic than whether international law is really law. Practicing lawyers and legal academics, let alone normal people, may become overwhelmed with boredom just reading the title of such an essay, even before plunging into the text. Beneath the comatose appearances, however, a political battle of immense significance is underway. Indeed, close observers believe the struggle may already be almost over, with enormous adverse consequences to the international interests and constitutional system of the United States. There is a rich tradition of skepticism about the legality of international law,' although much of the intellectual debate consists of two streams of argument that never really engage in actual combat. Critically, skepticism about international law does not depend at all on whether one's foreign-policy views are internationalist, isolationist or lie at any point in between, but rather on properly understanding why nations behave as they do among themselves and whether concepts of law used domestically can be exported *J.D. Yale University 1974, B.A. Yale University, 1970. Senior Vice President, American Enterprise Institute; Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs: 1989- 1993. 1. Robert H. Bork, The Limits of 'International Law,' NAT'L INT., Winter 1989-90, at 3. Even a leading international human rights advocate has called international law that most airyfairy of disciplines, at worst a mirage and at best a hostage to international politics. GEOFFREY ROBERTSON, CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY: THE STRUGGLE FOR GLOBAL JUSTICE, at xx (1999).

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