In International Law and the Public , Geoffrey P.R. Wallace investigates the public as a crucial, often overlooked, actor in international law. He asks just who is it that counts in the operation of the international legal order. Defying conventional wisdom that sees governments, leaders, generals, lawyers, or elites from the upper echelons of society as the main international legal players, Wallace advances a ‘popular international law’ where ordinary people are considered important legal actors in their own right alongside the usual focus on elites. Far from powerless or unwitting, publics possess both the cognitive and material capacities to understand and contribute to the intricacies of international legal rules. Combining rigorous theorizing with wide-ranging evidence, International Law and the Public is an account of an international legal politics from below, taking seriously the place of ordinary people in international affairs.
Table of Content
Introduction
1. What Is International Law and What Does It (Supposedly) Do? Definition and Functions
2. The Operation of International Law: From Top to Bottom… and Back Up Again
3. Reputation and Enforcement I: Experimental Evidence That Image Is Something (But Not Everything)
4. Reputation and Enforcement II: The United States, the Laws of War, and the War on Terror
5. From Law to Preferences I: Experimental Evidence of a Tortured Relationship
6. From Law to Preferences II: Droning on about War
Conclusion: Understanding the Public and International Law
About the author
Geoffrey P.R. Wallace is a professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Washington. He works in the areas of international security and international law focusing on the conduct of actors during armed conflict. He is the author of Life and Death in Captivity.
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