In This Issue – Reviews

This issue features reviews of three monographs, two engaging with non-Western approaches to international law, the other with a central question of the jus ad bellum. We begin with Lauri Mälksoo’s review of Russian Contributions to International Humanitarian Law by Michael Riepl. Published on the eve of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, this is a timely book if ever there was one, and it traces a reverse ‘Damascus’ move: Russia’s transformation from early advocate (Paul) to later sceptic (Saul) of international humanitarian law. Mälksoo finds it ‘remarkable’, not just for its timeliness and broad sweep, but also because it treats its heavy topic in ‘lively language’. We next have Said Mahmoudi’s review of Islamic Law and International Law: Peaceful Resolution of Disputes by Emilia Justyna Powell: an ‘ambitious’ study drawing on a wide range of sources, but one that, according to Mahmoudi, might overstate the relationship between Islamic law concepts and dispute settlement preferences. Finally, this issue features a review of Military Assistance on Request and the Use of Force by Erika de Wet. Christian Henderson finds much to agree with in this ‘rigorous doctrinal positivist’ analysis, among them the author’s ‘nuanced’ responses to the question of who can request an intervention, which emphasizes the continuing significance of effective control.