This book retells the multiple stories behind the rulings of the European Court, revealing their context, their history and the legal and non-legal strategies of their actors.

"The chapters of this volume were presented at the twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth Sokol Colloquia on Private International Law, held at the University of Virginia School of Law in September 2014 and September 2015." -- Acknowledgments, p. [xi].

Two central questions are at the core of international legal theory: 'What is international law?', and 'Is international law really law?' This volume examines these critical questions and the philosophical foundations of modern international law using the tools of Anglo-American legal theory and western political thought. Engaging with both contemporary and historical legal theory and with an analysis of international law in action, the book builds an understanding and theory of law from the perspective of those who actually use this legal system and understand it, rather than constructing an artificial system from the standpoint of political scientists and moral philosophers. Law at the Vanishing Point provides a fascinating new challenge to those who reduce international law either to ethics or to politics and provides a critical new appraisal of its power as an independent force in human social relations.