The Impact of International Law upon National Law: A Policy-Oriented Perspective

Abstract

Professor McDougal argues that traditional monistic and analytical approaches to international law have prevented a true appreciation of its essential nature. In Professor McDougal's view, international law is a dynamic, integrated, global process of authoritative decision, operating at many different community levels and through many different institutional devices, to resolve conflicts and affect policies and value processes in all the component communities of the world community. As such, he submits, international law can be made an effective instrument for broadening the perspectives and bases of power of national decision makers, thereby facilitating the wider and more secure achievement of those fundamental human desires and goals which transcend national boundaries.