The Restatement and Beyond

This book, The Restatement and Beyond, grapples with the most significant issues in contemporary U.S. foreign relations law. The chapters in this text respond to the recently published Fourth Restatement of the Foreign Relations Law. They review the context and assumptions on which that work relied, criticize that work for its analysis and conclusions, and explore topics left out of the published work that need research and development. Collectively, the essays in this book provide an authoritative study of the issues generating controversy today as those most likely to emerge in the coming decade. The book is organized in six parts. The first part provides a historical context for the law of foreign relations from the beginning of the twentieth century, when the United States first envisioned itself as a peer and competitor of the major European powers, to the present, when the United States, although a hegemon, faces deep unrest and uncertainty with respect to its position in the world. The next four parts look at contested issues in foreign relations law today, specifically the law of treaties, the role of domestic courts in interpreting and applying international law, the limits on domestic jurisdiction, and the law of immunity as to states, international organizations, and foreign government officials. The last part considers what this body of law might look like in the future as well as the difficulties raised by using the Restatement process as a way of contributing to the law’s development.