The 2nd edition of “International Law” by Ben Clarke and Jackson Maogoto is one of the many titles within Lawbook Co’s extensive “Nutshell” series. This book seeks to provide readers with a background to public international law by “explaining the basic aspects of this system of law”.

 

Being a book in the “Nutshell” series, “International Law” caters primarily to the law student demographic and therefore does not assume that the reader has any background knowledge in this area of the law. Accordingly, it rightly dedicates approximately a quarter of the book (i.e. 3 out of 13 chapters) to provide the reader with an introduction to concepts of public international law, its subjects and sources.

 

In later chapters, the book transitions into more specific topics by addressing popular modern public international law topics like “terrorism”, “human rights” and “environmental law”. As these topics are commonly found in the syllabus of international law courses at both undergraduate and graduate Australian law courses, the contents in the book are highly relevant to law students. Additionally, the “references and further reading” section at the end of each chapter also provide readers with a list of relevant articles should one be interested to obtain an in-depth understanding on particular aspects/topics. The chapter by chapter reference list also facilitates students writing research journals/articles by providing them with a reading list.

 

I would highly recommend “International Law” to law students and also legal practitioners who are interested in international law (but did not manage to read the course while attending law school). The book also satisfies my personal criteria of affordability and value for money - is available on the publisher’s website at a retail price of only AUD27.00.