Jus Cogens
Citation: 40 N.Y.U. J. Int'l L. & Pol. 1121 2007-2008 Content downloaded/printed from HeinOnline (http://heinonline.org) Sat Jun 15 01:32:03 2013 -- Your use of this HeinOnline PDF indicates your acceptance of HeinOnline's Terms and Conditions of the license agreement available at http://heinonline.org/HOL/License -- The search text of this PDF is generated from uncorrected OCR text. -- To obtain permission to use this article beyond the scope of your HeinOnline license, please use: https://www.copyright.com/ccc/basicSearch.do? &operation=go&searchType=0 &lastSearch=simple&all=on&titleOrStdNo=0028-7873
2008]
BOOK ANNOTATIONS
be exhibiting a distaste for politics, but this distaste does not equal a desire to leave politics behind. A loosely defined Europe with ever-expanding boundaries still requires political processes and decisions. The nation is not a prerequisite for democratic politics, but it is the easiest and best-known forum in which democratic politics can take place. This observation should not detract from Manent's overall work. He states at the outset that his intent is to describe the Western political order, and in that task he succeeds. Ultimately, if Manent is guilty of anything, it is of adopting a title that is overly ambitious. His "defense of the nationstate" is never an explicit, full-throated defense; rather, Manent allows it to permeate his arguments, and he relies on the presumption that nation-states are required for democratic politics to take place. By ably describing the modern democratic political world, A World Beyond Politics? is an effective defense, not of the nation-state, but of democratic politics itself.
Peremptory Norms and International Law. Alexander Orakhe-
lashvili. New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. 672. $99.96 (hardcover).
REVIEWED BY ZACHARY GOLDMAN
Alexander Orakhelashvili has written a masterful and thoroughly rich study of peremptory norms (jus cogens) in international law,
2008]
BOOK ANNOTATIONS
be exhibiting a distaste for politics, but this distaste does not equal a desire to leave politics behind. A loosely defined Europe with ever-expanding boundaries still requires political processes and decisions. The nation is not a prerequisite for democratic politics, but it is the easiest and best-known forum in which democratic politics can take place. This observation should not detract from Manent's overall work. He states at the outset that his intent is to describe the Western political order, and in that task he succeeds. Ultimately, if Manent is guilty of anything, it is of adopting a title that is overly ambitious. His "defense of the nationstate" is never an explicit, full-throated defense; rather, Manent allows it to permeate his arguments, and he relies on the presumption that nation-states are required for democratic politics to take place. By ably describing the modern democratic political world, A World Beyond Politics? is an effective defense, not of the nation-state, but of democratic politics itself.
Peremptory Norms and International Law. Alexander Orakhe-
lashvili. New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. 672. $99.96 (hardcover).
REVIEWED BY ZACHARY GOLDMAN
Alexander Orakhelashvili has written a masterful and thoroughly rich study of peremptory norms (jus cogens) in international law,