Legal Order in a Violent World

Book excerpt: Professor Myres S. McDougal of the Yale Law School calls this examination of the relation of law and violence in contemporary international society "...a profound, perceptive, and eloquent contribution to the most important problem of our time." Professor Falk places great emphasis on two distinctive challenges to world order--nuclear weapons and civil strife. While developing the implication that even the most powerful states are vulnerable to destruction trhough nuclear attack, he also points out that there is no very firm hope that military power cna be managed so as to reduce the predominance of the sovereign state in world politics. Richard A. Falk is Milbank Professor of International Law and Practice, Princeton University. Published for the Center of International Studies, Princeton University. Originally published in 1968. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.