A time of challenge and changing assumptions

The last decade of the twentieth century and the first of the twenty-first century may not be the most challenging period for the generally accepted assumptions of international law, but this period will certainly rank high on any such list. The growing depth, speed of change, and adjustment required by “globalization,” accompanied by striking changes in government institutions, a remarkable increase in nongovernment activity and advocacy, an intense emphasis on market economic ideas, and a backlash against them, have all chipped away at the relatively fragile (perhaps already crumbing) theoretical foundations of the international legal system as it has been generally accepted for centuries.