The aim of this course is to introduce students to the main theoretical debates on the nature and purpose of international law. As a decentralized system aiming mainly to regulate relations between states, international law has been subject to much theoretical analysis. Traditional analyses of international law explore the legal nature of international law; its relations with natural law; the sources of its binding power; the nature of sovereignty and its relations to individual rights, as well as the purpose of international law. Newer, critical studies analyze international law and its relations to power: whether in terms of empire, gender, race, or class. In parallel, new methodologies to the study of international law are emerging: economic, empirical, and historical to name but a few.

This course seeks to acquaint students with contemporary debates on the theory of international law by close-reading and discussing, in each session, important works on the theory of international law. Because of international law's characteristics, universalist presumptions, and theoretical richness, discussing the theory of international law can shed law on the nature of law in general, both international or domestic.