Interpretation in International Law

Andrea Bianchi · Daniel Peat · Matthew Windsor

Feb 2015 · OUP Oxford

About this ebook

International lawyers have long recognised the importance of interpretation to their academic discipline and professional practice. As new insights on interpretation abound in other fields, international law and international lawyers have largely remained wedded to a rule-based approach, focusing almost exclusively on the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. Such an approach neglects interpretation as a distinct and broader field of theoretical inquiry. Interpretation in International Law brings international legal scholars together to engage in sustained reflection on the theme of interpretation. The book is creatively structured around the metaphor of the game, which captures and illuminates the constituent elements of an act of interpretation. The object of the game of interpretation is to persuade the audience that one's interpretation of the law is correct. The rules of play are known and complied with by the players, even though much is left to their skills and strategies. There is also a meta-discourse about the game of interpretation - 'playing the game of game-playing' - which involves consideration of the nature of the game, its underlying stakes, and who gets to decide by what rules one should play. Through a series of diverse contributions, Interpretation in International Law reveals interpretation as an inescapable feature of all areas of international law. It will be of interest and utility to all international lawyers whose work touches upon theoretical or practical aspects of interpretation.

About the author

Andrea Bianchi is Professor of International Law and Head of the International Law Department at The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva. Previously, he was a Professor at the Catholic University, Milan, Associate Professor at the University of Parma and Professorial Lecturer in International Law at the Bologna Centre of Johns Hopkins University. He has researched and published extensively on various aspects of public international law, with a particular emphasis on theoretical and methodological issues. Daniel Peat is a PhD candidate in Law at the University of Cambridge. He is a member of Gonville & Caius College, and a recipient of the WM Tapp Studentship in Law. He is a graduate of The Graduate Institute, Geneva and the London School of Economics, and has been a visiting researcher/scholar at Harvard Law School, the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, and Sciences Po, Paris. He has taught in the Faculty of Law and Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Cambridge. Matthew Windsor is a PhD candidate in Law at the University of Cambridge. He is a member of Gonville & Caius College, and a recipient of the WM Tapp Studentship in Law. He is a graduate of Columbia Law School and the University of Auckland. He has taught in the Faculty of Law and Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Cambridge. He has previously worked as a litigation associate at the Open Society Justice Initiative in New York City and as a judge's clerk at the Court of Appeal of New Zealand.