The advancement of international law

State contracts and their governing law : a reappraisal -- The international responsibility of states based on investment promotion and protection treaties -- The state's normative freedom and the question of indirect expropriation -- Some theoretical reflections on state contracts -- Hans Kelsen and the advancement of international law -- The notion of Civitas Maxima in Kelsen's work -- International courts in an interstate society -- The state within the meaning of international law and the state within the meaning of municipal law (on the theory of the dual personality of the state) -- On the legal nature of the European Communities -- A federation of nation states or a federal state? -- Is there a European approach to human rights?;Theoretical understanding of what constitutes true advancement in international law. Such an understanding should give pause both to those who argue that hardly any progress has been made, and to those who are overly fanciful about progress.;Any talk of the advancement of international law presupposes that two objections are met. The first is the 'realist' objection which, observing the state of international relations today, claims that when it comes down to the important things in international life-war and peace, and more generally power politics among states-no real advancement has been made: international society remains a society of sovereign states deciding matters with regard solely to their own best interests and with international law all too often being no more than a thin cloak cast over the precept that 'might is right'. Against this excessive scepticism stands excessive optimism: international law is supposedly making giant strides forward thanks especially to the tremendous mass of soft law generated by international organisations over the past sixty years and more. By incautiously mixing all manner of customs, treaties, resolutions and recommendations, a picture of international law is painted that has little to do with.