About the Book:
In 1994 the American Society of International Law published the collected presidential notes of Louis Henkin entitled Taking International Law Seriously, in which he appealed to U.S. officials to comply with international law obligations, and to act in bona fide respect to international law. In 1994 Justice Blackmun made the famous statement: "Taking international law seriously where the death penalty is concerned draws into question the United States' entire capital punishment enterprise." More than ten years have passed in which the world has experienced a humanitarian intervention in former Yugoslavia, the horrific terrorist attacks of September 11 and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The law has changed, the world has changed; only the United States persistently maintains its old attitude towards international law. The authors analyze this anachronism in Taking International Law Seriously, with the underlying assumption that nations, in relationship to one another, should treat international law as authoritative.

 

Preface and Acknowledgements

List of abbreviations

Part One: Introduction

Chapter One: Taking International Seriously

Part Two: Foundations

Chapter Two: Constitutional Framework

Chapter Three: Historical development of the Case Law

Chapter Four: Conclusion

Part Three: Clashes of International and National Law: Sensitive Areas

Chapter Five: Death Penalty and the U.S. Reservations to International Conventions

Chapter Six: International Tribunals

Chapter Eight: War against Terrorism

Part Four: The United States and International Law

Chapter Nine: Synthesis

Appendix

1. Table of cases

2. Index

About the Authors:
Helen Keller is Professor for Public, European and International law at the University of Zurich and is also Counsel to the firm of Umbricht Attorneys in Zurich. She has been a Visiting Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg. She was a Research Fellow at the European University Institute, Florence (Italy 1995) and a Research fellow at Harvard University Law School, where her supervisors included Anne-Marie Slaughter.

Daniela Thurnherr (Yale) is Assistant lecturer for constitutional and administrative law at the Universities of Zurich and Lucerne, and the legal secretary at the Administrative Court of the Canton of Zurich.