With the resurgence of Asian nations such as China, current West-centric international law is changing in the twenty-first century. There is a pressing need to address these changes within international legal studies and overcome potential conflicts between existing and emerging powers. This structural transformation also demands a change in understanding of existing ideas and institutions. This book explores a 'trans-civilizational' approach to international law, supplementing and modifying two...

This work presents a scholarly commentary and critique of Hugo Grotius' De Jure Belli ac Pacis. It shows that, far from being a bookish theoretician indulging in the construction of an abstract system, Grotius ultimately aimed to create a practically oriented treatise focusing on "regulating and restraining war." It also re-examines the historiography of international law with its anachronistic Eurocentric bias.