What gives law life? What animates it, and in so doing warrants the claim that law contributes to the production of social order in a particular community? In an article just published in the Hague Yearbook of International Law, I argue that law lives, or exists, only in those societies where law rules, and law rules only when the exercise of political power is conducted under the supervision of lawyers, agents for whom realizing the rule of law is a calling or vocation. Even more surprisingly, I contend that the most prominent proponent of this account of law in the field of international law and legal theory is Martti Koskenniemi.
For a link to the article, please click on the Scholarship tab above. Comments welcome!