Oltre l’oggettivismo, la riscoperta dell’immaginazione - Una presentazione e una critica a From Apology to Utopia, di Martti Koskenniemi

In a few paragraphs this article explains the main theses developed in the book From Apology to Utopia, the most important work of Martti Koskenniemi. The book analyzes and criticizes the structure of international legal argument, showing that international law does not provide a set of rules capable of settling contrasts and divergences among states in a neutral way, and that, for this reason, cannot be differentiated from politics: the sources and the principles at the basis of international law are structured in such a way that opposite solutions may be reached using the same arguments. The international lawyer is called to be aware of this undetermined aspect of law, and to imagine new solutions for new problems. The conclusions Koskenniemi reaches, however; leave open two questions, which this article seeks to bring to light.