Book Reviewing: An Opening Note and In This Issue

We are honoured and delighted to assume the role of Book Review Editors for the European Journal of International Law. At a time marked by deepening animosities between nations, growing polarization within them, challenging times for the respect of peoples’ and human rights and an erosion of commitment to foundational norms of international law, the need for careful and sustained reflection feels more urgent than ever. In the midst of war, fragmentation of the international legal order, and contested authority of international institutions, books offer a rare space for depth – allowing ideas to mature, arguments to unfold, and assumptions to be challenged. They require time and concentration, which sometimes seem to be lacking in a period of acceleration and urgency, whether real or perceived. They invite us not only to revisit the intellectual foundations of our field but also to reimagine its future. We believe the writing, reading, and reviewing of books should be actively nurtured, especially in turbulent times, and we hope, with the help of our wonderful assistant Fiona Argenta, to make the Book Review section a space where such thoughtful engagement can flourish.

We would like to express our sincere thanks to Gail Lythgoe and Christian Tams for their thoughtful and generous leadership of the Book Review section in recent years. Their sharp editorial judgment, openness to new ideas, and careful attention to quality have made this section a vital part of the Journal. We are especially grateful for their support during the transition, which made our own entry into the role much smoother. This issue includes reviews they commissioned and edited, and we are glad to feature their work one more time. It is a pleasure to follow in their footsteps.

This issue includes four reviews. Yen-Chiang Chang and Muhammad Saqib review Viability of UNCLOS amid Emerging Global Maritime Challenges, edited by Lan Anh T. Nguyen and Hai Dang Vu (2025). This timely volume asks whether the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea remains fit for purpose in an era of rising seas, intensifying geopolitical rivalries, and rapid technological change. The reviewers explore how effectively the book navigates UNCLOS’s enduring strengths and its growing vulnerabilities, offering insights into one of the most critical legal frameworks shaping today’s maritime order.

Michal Saliternik reviews The Right to Exclude: A Critical Race Approach to Sovereignty, Borders, and International Law by Justin Desautels-Stein (2023). Desautels-Stein argues that racial ideology is not a historical aberration but a constitutive element of sovereignty and border control in international law – from the colonial era to the postracial present. The review traces the book’s critical genealogy of racial exclusion in international legal thought, while also engaging with its bold call to reimagine the legal architecture of inclusion. Saliternik concludes by proposing two alternative reform paths – deracialization and re-racialization – that respond to the postracial impasse the book so powerfully diagnoses.

Luíza Leão Soares Pereira reviews International Law-Making by the International Court of Justice and International Law Commission: Partnership for Purpose in a Decentralized Legal Order by Omri Sender (2024). Sender offers an illuminating account of the relationship between the ICJ and the ILC, arguing that it is in their interaction – not in their isolated outputs – that a distinctive form of international law-making emerges. The review explores how Sender’s doctrinal analysis, coupled with attention to institutional culture and personal networks, reveals a phenomenon that quietly challenges the traditional state-centric model of international legal authority.

Finally, Kathryn McNeilly reviews Time and International Adjudication: The Temporal Factor in Proceedings before International Courts and Tribunals, edited by Andrea Gattini and Marco Dimetto (2024). This wide-ranging volume explores how concepts, rules, and pressures of time shape the conduct and outcomes of proceedings across international adjudicative bodies. McNeilly highlights the book’s contribution to a growing field of scholarship that treats time not as a neutral backdrop but as a structuring force in international law – inviting readers to reflect on how temporal dynamics affect everything from compliance and delay to institutional memory and legal reasoning.