THIS BOOK EXPLORES the evolution of international law since the Second World War, and the new American attitude of withdrawal and unilateralism. It presents many examples to illustrate how the United States have reneged on agreements governing war, torture and the environment – with Britain often turning a blind eye or colluding in some of the worst violations. The book aims to shed some light on international law, to describe in a clear and comprehensive manner what the rules are, how they are made, and how they are argued when contentious issues come up. It explains that as imperfect as international rules may be, they are still highly necessary in a globalizing and increasingly interdependent world, for they reflect minimum standards of acceptable behaviour and provide important standards for judging the legitimacy of international actions. The different chapters examine why recent American and British actions endanger international justice, and question the possible trends for the future.

Chapter 1 begins with a short story of the period between the end of the Second World War and recent times, and the factors that have transformed the world in which a new legal order was constructed. Chapter 2 focuses on the case of the Chilean ex-dictator, General Pinochet, and the end of presidential immunity and impunity, presented as a high point in the dismantling of a system that classically gave states unfettered powers over their citizens. Chapter 3 looks at the circumstances in which the international community created an International Criminal Court, part of the same “Pinochet moment”. Both these chapters show that the forces driving the neo-conservative approach of the Bush Administration were already emerging in the late 1990s. Chapter 4 is concerned with the environment and the abandonment by the US of the Kyoto Protocol’s mechanisms to combat global warming. Chapters 5 and 6 examine two areas in which the US maintains a stronger commitment to international law, namely the rules to increase global free trade and safeguard overseas investments. The three following chapters 7, 8 and 9 deal with the post 9/11 issues of Guantanamo Bay, Iraq and Abu Ghraib, when the constraints of international law were abandoned in the name of national interests and security. The final chapter concludes by linking these apparently self-contained stories, which show that international law is eventually about people and politics.