ABSTRACT
The relationship between international politics and international law is being renegotiated. Politics is more concerned with law. The Kyoto Protocol has been a focal point for criticism of the US. The argument in Britain over the British role in the 2003 invasion of Iraq concentrated obsessively on the legality of the invasion, picking over the detail of the legal advice given to the British government. But the way we view international law is also changing, with law becoming more politicized. The reach of law is being extended, and its derivation from the will of sovereign states is being challenged. Some argue that law has a greater independence from states than might previously have been the case, or at least more so than was recognized. Others claim that law is no more than a cover for the imposition of force by the American Empire. Neither side accepts international law as something made and remade by sovereigns. In this chapter I argue that the intermingling of law and politics that is taking place is bad for law and bad for politics.
