Paper's abstract

Julien Cantegreil, New Haven Ages. Standing and Future of the New Haven School of International Law
Almost ten years after Myres S. McDougal's death, in 1998, there can be no doubt that his policy oriented approach to the study of law the New Haven School of International Law [NHSIL] has « irrevocably altered the way we think about international Law » (Dame Rosalyn Higgins). The problems the NHSIL was built to resolve are the issues we are confronted with more than ever. Yet the NHSIL is neither mentioned in any French Law School's curriculum nor used in any way as a blueprint for action by decision makers or as an interesting tool by legal activists. McDougal's followers were numerous, yet today are very few. This paper aims at explaining the paradox of the NHSIL school of thought both seminal and not endorsed. We first claim that the NHSIL should be understood as general jurisprudence (I), which is only applied to the study of International law without being reducible to it (II). By doing so, we propose to explain both its success and misfortune by referring to the general features of the main American schools of jurisprudence during the XXth Century (III). By doing so, we hope to progressively convince that current developments on both the issues of compliance and value could and should give a new vigor to some of the core ideas of the New Haven School of International Law.

Key Words : International law, New Haven school
t. 51, 2008 : p. 297-317