Taming International Law — Two Books

No aspcet of the modern leftist project poses more danger than the left’s approach to international law. By definition, interational law is in tension with national sovereignty, but the “transnationalist” approach to international law advanced by leftists threatens to run roughshod over sovereignty. And, in the case of the United States, a threat to sovereignty means a threat to democracy — to the ability of Americans to govern themselves.

Two new books deal with this issue. The first, Taming Globalization: International Law, the Constitution, and the New World Order by Julian Ku and John Yoo, deals explicitly with the threat to our democratic institutions posed by aggressive transnationalism. The authors propose three ways in which the U.S. can minimize that threat.

The second book is Israel and the Struggle over the International Laws of War, by our friend Peter Berkowitz. Peter shows how terrorist groups and their state sponsors use international law as a weapon, with liberal democracies — particularly Israel and the United States — their targets. The threat posed by international law that Peter identifies is not just to sovereignty, but to national security.

I recommend both books to those with an interest in this subject matter. I will be writing separately about them soon.

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