International Law as a Belief System

Offers a new perspective on international law and international legal argumentation: to what event is international law a belief system?

This book offers a new perspective on how legal arguments are constructed whilst revisiting theoretical discussions on the sources of international law and the structure of legal argumentation. It will appeal to those interested in the theory of international law and will inform further explorations of this field.International Law as a Belief System considers how we construct international legal discourses and the self-referentiality at the centre of all legal arguments about international law. It explores how the fundamental doctrines (such as sources, responsibility, statehood, personality, interpretation and jus cogens) constrain legal reasoning by inventing their own origin and dictating the nature of their functioning. In this innovative work, d'Aspremont argues that these processes constitute the mark of a belief system. This book invites international lawyers to temporarily suspend some of their understandings about the fundamental doctrines they adhere to in their professional activities. It aims to provide readers with new tools to reinvent the thinking about international law and combines theory and practice to offer insights that are valuable for both theorists and practitioners.