Akehurst's Modern Introduction to International Law

First published in 1970, Akehurst's Modern Introduction to International Law rapidly established itself as a widely used and successful textbook in its field. Being the shortest of all the major textbooks in this area, it continues to offer a concise and accessible overview of the concepts, themes, and issues central to the growing system of international law, while retaining Akehurst's original positivist approach that accounts for the essence and character of this system of law.

This new ninth edition has been further revised and updated by Alexander Orakhelashvili to take account of a plethora of recent developments and updates in the field, accounting for over forty decisions of international and national courts, as well as a number of treaties and major incidents that have occurred since the eighth edition of this textbook was published.

Based on transparent methodology and with a distinctive cross-jurisdictional approach which opens up the discipline to students from all backgrounds, this engaging, well-structured, and reputable textbook will provide students with all the tools, methods, and concepts they need to fully understand this complex and diverse subject. It is an essential text for all undergraduate and postgraduate students of international law, government and politics, and international relations.

This book is one of the only textbooks in international law to offer a fully updated, bespoke companion website: www.routledge.com/cw/orakhelashvili.

Alexander Orakhelashvili (LLM Leiden, PhD Cantab.), Reader at the University of Birmingham, UK, has taught and researched public international law at four British universities over the past 20 years. He is a frequent speaker at international conferences and seminars on developments in public international law, and has given invited papers at the events and conferences held in the UK, the USA, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Japan. He has provided legal advice regarding public international law issues in litigation before English and American courts. His publications include Peremptory Norms in International Law (2006), The Interpretation of Acts and Rules in Public International Law (2008), Collective Security (2011), Domesticating Kelsen: Towards the Pure Theory of English Law (2019), and International Law and International Politics: Foundations of Interdisciplinary Analysis (2020), as well as three edited collections and over 80 articles and book chapters in leading journals and edited collections.