ABSTRACT
As events surrounding September 11, 2001, and the invasion of Iraq have brought into yet sharper relief, the United States has been famously resistant to the imposition of international law norms. This resistance runs deep in American constitutional culture, which has rejected the possibility of being made to bow before international law where it does not otherwise serve its national interest. In the American imagination, sovereignty still represents a bulwark against alien encroachment. And given America’s unchallenged position as the world’s sole superpower, many — including many academics — have assumed a US capacity to persist in this sort of splendid legal isolation, even as its sovereigntist premises are normatively deplored.
