Meaning in International Law: From Pericles to Trump

Meaning in International Law – from Pericles to Trump is dedicated to the memory of my father Alfred John Thomas (1939-2019). My father, a learned and deeply religious man, kindly allowed me to utilize his immense library on history, literature and international relations during my initial research on this topic as a post-graduate law student at the University of Western Australia from 1996 to 2002. An abridged conference essay version entitled The Search for The Foundation of International Law was subsequently published by Outskirts – Feminism on the Edge in 2005. This volume is a revised and enhanced book based on my original thesis that I believe is worthy of immediate consideration by academics, lawyers, policy makers and human rights activists - in the age of the Coronavirus and the folly of Mr Trump’s domestic and international policies. After this pandemic has ended it is my firm belief that there will be an increasing need for International Law to have more coherence and commitment by nation-states to adhere to a global rule of law. This book argues why such an international legal order based on human rights and global governance is much needed in the modern age. Historically, after major crises such as the First and Second World Wars, the international legal order is compelled by human tragedy to be refashioned anew.