Interpretation in International Law

International lawyers have long recognised the importance of interpretation to their academic discipline and professional practice. As new insights on interpretation abound in other fields, international law and international lawyers have largely remained wedded to a rule-based approach, focusing almost exclusively on the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. Such an approach neglects interpretation as a distinct and broader field of theoretical inquiry.
Interpretation in International Law brings international legal scholars together to engage in sustained reflection on the theme of interpretation. The book is creatively structured around the metaphor of the game, which captures and illuminates the constituent elements of an act of interpretation. The object of the game of interpretation is to persuade the audience that one's interpretation of the law is correct. The rules of play are known and complied with by the players, even though much is left to their skills and strategies. There is also a meta-discourse about the game of interpretation - 'playing the game of game-playing' - which involves consideration of the nature of the game, its underlying stakes, and who gets to decide by what rules one should play.
Through a series of diverse contributions, Interpretation in International Law reveals interpretation as an inescapable feature of all areas of international law. It will be of interest and utility to all international lawyers whose work touches upon theoretical or practical aspects of interpretation.

Andrea Bianchi, Professor of Law, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Daniel Peat, PhD Candidate, Gonville & Caius College, University of Cambridge, Matthew Windsor, PhD Candidate, Gonville & Caius College, University of Cambridge

Andrea Bianchi is Professor of International Law and Head of the International Law Department at The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva. Previously, he was a Professor at the Catholic University, Milan, Associate Professor at the University of Parma and Professorial Lecturer in International Law at the Bologna Centre of Johns Hopkins University. He has researched and published extensively on various aspects of public international law, with a particular emphasis on theoretical and methodological issues.

Daniel Peat is a PhD candidate in Law at the University of Cambridge. He is a member of Gonville & Caius College, and a recipient of the WM Tapp Studentship in Law. He is a graduate of The Graduate Institute, Geneva and the London School of Economics, and has been a visiting researcher/scholar at Harvard Law School, the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, and Sciences Po, Paris. He has taught in the Faculty of Law and Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Cambridge.

Matthew Windsor is a PhD candidate in Law at the University of Cambridge. He is a member of Gonville & Caius College, and a recipient of the WM Tapp Studentship in Law. He is a graduate of Columbia Law School and the University of Auckland. He has taught in the Faculty of Law and Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Cambridge. He has previously worked as a litigation associate at the Open Society Justice Initiative in New York City and as a judge's clerk at the Court of Appeal of New Zealand.

Introduction
1. Playing the Game of Interpretation: On Meaning and Metaphor in International Law, Daniel Peat and Matthew Windsor
2. The Game of Interpretation in International Law: The Players, The Cards, and why the Game is Worth the Candle, Andrea Bianchi
The Object
3. Rhetoric, Persuasion, and the Object of Interpretation in International Law, Iain Scobbie
4. The Existential Function of Interpretation in International Law, Duncan B Hollis
5. The Multidimensional Process of Interpretation: Content-Determination and Law-Ascertainment Distinguished, Jean d'Aspremont
The Players
6. Interpretation and the International Legal Profession: Between Duty and Aspiration, Andraz Zidar
7. Interpretive Communities in International Law, Michael Waibel
8. Interpretative Authority and the International Judiciary, Gleider Hernandez
The Rules
9. The Vienna Rules, Evolutionary Interpretation, and the Intentions of the Parties, Eirik Bjorge
10. Accounting for Difference in Treaty Interpreation Over Time, Julian Arato
11. Interpreting Transplanted Treaty Rules, Anne-Marie Carstens
The Strategies
12. A Genealogy of Textualism in Treaty Interpretation, Fuad Zarbiyev
13. Theorizing Precedent in International Law, Harlan Grant Cohen
14. Interpretation in International Law as a Transcultural Project, Rene Provost
Playing the Game of Game-Playing
15. Towards a Politics of Hermeneutics, Jens Olesen
16. Cognitive Frames of Interpretation in International Law, Martin Wahlisch
17. Is Interpretation in International Law a Game?, Ingo Venzke
Conclusion
18. Interpretation- an Exact Art, Philip Allott