Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction --
Ch. 1. The nature and function of international law --
Ch. 2. Sources of international law: Provenance and problems --
Ch. 3. Participants in the international legal system --
Ch. 4. Allocating competence: Jurisdiction --
Ch. 5. Exceptions to jurisdictional competence: Immunities from suit and enforcement --
Ch. 6. Responding to individual needs: Human rights --
Ch. 7. Self-determination --
Ch. 8. Natural resources and international norms --
Ch. 9. Accountability and liability: The law of state responsibility --
Ch. 10. The United Nations --
Ch. 11. Dispute settlement and the International Court of Justice --
Ch. 12. The role of national courts in the international legal process --
Ch. 13. Oiling the wheels of international law: Equity and proportionality --
Ch. 14. The individual use of force in international law --
Ch. 15. The use of force by the United Nations.

The greatest possible honor for an international lawyer is to be invited to deliver the Hague Academy General Course in International Law. Rosalyn Higgins was so honored and this volume is the revised text of the lectures she delivered there. Its purpose is to show that there is an essential and unavoidable choice to be made between the perception of international law as either a system of neutral rules or as a system of decision-making directed towards the attainment of specific declared values. This book focuses on resolving this in addition to many other difficult and unanswered issues in contemporary international law. The topics she addresses include human rights, allocating competence, self determination, and the individual use of force in international law. This accessible volume will be particularly useful to scholars and students of international law who seek a better understanding of the subject and desire to see how the great web of inter-related concepts which comprise international law are held together as a coherent and cohesive whole.