Endorsements and Reviews

“International lawyers (and students of international governance) take note: this book is one of the most significant contributions yet from the growing interaction of international relations and international law. Barbara Koremenos shows how states carefully design and apply the technical provisions of treaties – from duration to monitoring to precision – to address incentives, constraints and actor characteristics. An analytical tour de force, the book sheds new light on legalized cooperation.”

—Kenneth W. Abbott, Jack E. Brown Professor of Law, Arizona State University

“The Continent of International Law brilliantly generates empirical generalizations about the design of international agreements, demonstrating that a functional, or rational design, theory explains institutional design remarkably well.”

—Robert O. Keohane, Princeton University

“Barbara Koremenos demonstrates the surprising reach and variation of international law and shows the extent to which the provisions of agreements reflect rational institutional design. International law is indeed a continent that we can clearly map using the tools of modern social science.”

—Stephen D. Krasner, Graham H. Stuart Professor of International Relations, Stanford University

“This is one of the most systematic rationalist accounts ever of the cooperative dilemmas states face and the legal structures they create to resolve them. Koremenos’s book is a triumph of argumentation and evidence that will spark debate across the disciplines of international law and international relations. Brava, Barbara!”

—Beth Simmons, Harvard University

“Koremenos … offers an important addition to the literature. The core of the text draws on a unique new data set (COIL) derived from a random sample of all international agreements submitted to the UN. This data allows Koremenos to test a series of hypotheses connected to the rational design of institutions by states … The text is one of the first to move beyond case studies in examining international agreements and organizations. In doing so, it is one of the first to allow making broad generalizations across all organizations and agreements … Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.”

—K. Buterbaugh, Choice