Sometimes a Great Notion

Glennon comments on the limits of international law, arguing that a system grounded on self-restraint creates serious problems, to the point of raising doubts as to whether it can accurately be described as "law." He claims that the rest of a legal system depends for its vitality and coherence on the strength of its metarules, and that the metarules of international law relating to the issues of consent, obligation, and causation provide especially weak support.