The development of international law over the centuries discloses a pattern. Law has functioned mainly as an instrument on behalf of leading territorial states. International law reflects the complexity, contradictory possibilities, shifting interests and values, and fragmented structure of international political and economic reality. The Gulf War of 1991 illustrates a side of the complex situation of international law in relation to emerging trends. The reality of international law in relation to emancipatory goals has become inherently ambiguous, and must be assessed on a case by case basis. It has been argued that it will be increasingly important for progressive political actors to appropriate international law for their reformist and transformative projects. The Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) scandal, although not yet unraveled, dramatically illustrates a dimension of the weakness of international law and the related vulnerability of people and weak societies to economic wrongdoing of mammoth proportions.