International Legal ArgumentationPractice in Need of a Theory

This introductory chapter situates the study of legal argumentation outside of courtrooms in the context of existing theories of discourse and deliberation in international law and politics. It identifies a central gap in those theories, namely, the distinctive role of legal as opposed to other forms of argumentation. It posits a set of questions addressed in the book that together illuminate the microprocesses of communicating in the language of international law: who, what, where, why, and to what effect? The introduction also provides a synopsis of the chapters in the book, clustered into three groups: security, human dignity, and the global commons.