Canadian Perspectives on International Law and Organization. Toward an Expanding Role in World Order

In their Introduction to this massive collocation of almost forty essays comprising nearly a thousand pages, the editors advance a series of claims and outline a number of themes which may serve as useful points of departure for considering the contribution of this volume to scholarship in the area of international law and organization. Perceiving the book as providing "for the first time a comprehensive Canadian conspectus on current issues and developments in international law", they state the goal of their endeavour to be "the sketching of a modem Canadian world view." Through emphasis placed by the contributors on issues of particular concern in Canada or which "reveal Canadian assumptions and preferences", the book is characterized as "a fairly complete reflection of contemporary Canadian approaches to international law." General questions are raised about whether the emerging Canadian global role reflects a shift from "internationalism" toward the unilateral pursuit of national goals perhaps incompatible with world community interests. Finally, the editors invite speculation about the preferred nature of Canada's global orientation.