The Kantian Project in Modern International Legal Theory

Developments over the last 50 years in the institutional nature of international law and the political situation it regulates have led to a revival of Kant's approach to international legal theory. Kant's argument requires, first, that a distinction is made between just and unjust state for the purposes of regulation by international law and, that  international  law  must  be  institutionally  designed  to  ensure  the peaceful       settlement of disputes. Fernando Tesón's A Philosophy of International Law- which is the subject of this review-represents the fullest defense of Kant's international legal theory so far. It is argued in this review that Tesón's work contains two problems. First Tesón does not defend the methodological and justificatory  basis of Kantian theory, which is, on most accounts, the categorical imperative, and his allusion to an empirical methodology is problematic. Secondly, Tesón does not sufficiently develop the second of   Kant's  major theses,  which concerns the maintenance  of peace  by international legal institutions. In fact, Tesón's argument can be best understood as of a Kantian  approach  to a moral  foreign  policy  rather  than  a Kantian conception of international law.