What's Wrong with International Law?

Book excerpt: 'What's wrong with international law?' This is the question Professor A.H.A. Soons provocatively posed to his colleagues around the world when leaving his chair in public international law at Utrecht University. Meant to provoke discussion about what actually is wrong with international law as well as act in defence of the discipline, his conclusion was a resounding 'nothing!' Honouring Professor Soons's achievements throughout his long career as a scholar and a practitioner of international law, this Liber Amicorum exmaines whether, indeed, there is something wrong with international law. The contributors identify gaps or 'wrong norms' in specific fields of international law, and assess whether there is something wrong with the regulatory function of international law as a system for creating global public order.