How Interpretation Makes International Law: On Semantic Change and Normative Twists

by Ingo Venzke

Challenging the classic narrative that sovereign states make the law that constrains them, this book argues that treaties and other sources of international law form only the starting point of legal authority. Interpretation can shift the meaning of texts and, in its own way, make law. In the practice of interpretation actors debate the meaning of the written and customary laws, and so contribute to the making of new law. In such cases it is the actor's...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0198712979
• ISBN13: 9780198712978
• Release Date: June 2014
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 344 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.1" x 9.1"