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Prof. W. Michael Reisman

Mr. W. Michael Reisman
Myres S. McDougal Professor of International Law
Yale Law School

Biography Biography in PDF

International Law
Legal Theory
On the Causes of Uncertainty and Volatility
in International Law
Despite the assumption that law is a stable set of rules, it is, in fact, at every level, a dynamic and dialectal process. This is especially the case in international law where a variety of unique features render international law more uncertain and more volatile than domestic legal systems. These characteristics present daunting intellectual and professional challenges to international lawyers.

Original Lecture in English
Video | Audio
(14/5/2008, 60 mins)

Lecture with simultaneous interpretation
中文
Audio

 
The View from the New Haven School of
International Law
The New Haven School, founded by Professors Myres S. McDougal and Harold D. Lasswell, presents a distinct approach to international law, developing a framework for inquiry based on broad contextuality and identifying a set of intellectual tasks that go beyond those ordinarily assigned to the lawyer by other jurisprudential schools.

Original Lecture in English
Video | Audio
(5/6/2008, 34 minutes)

Lecture with simultaneous interpretation
العربية
Audio
中文 Français
Audio
Русский
Audio
Español
Audio

International Law
Legal Theory
On the Causes of Uncertainty and Volatility in International Law
A. Legal Instruments
B. Doctrine
E. Ehrlich, Fundamental Principles of the Sociology of Law, W. Moll (trans.), Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1936.

F. Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man, Free Press, New York, 1992.

R. Pound, “Law in Books and Law in Action”, American Law Review, vol. 44, 1910, p. 12.

W.M. Reisman, “Myth System and Operational Code”, Yale Studies in World Public Order, vol. 3, 1977, p. 229.


The View from the New Haven School of International Law
A. Legal Instruments
B. Documents
Security Council, Provisional verbatim record of the 3046th meeting (S/PV.3046, 31 January 1992).

Report of the Secretary-General pursuant to the statement adopted by the Summit Meeting of the Security Council on 31 January 1992, “An Agenda for Peace” (A/47/277, 17 June 1992).
C. Doctrine
J. Austin, The Province of Jurisprudence Determined, John Murray, London, 1832.