Steven R. Ratner
About/Bio
Steven R. Ratner is the Bruno Simma Collegiate Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School. His teaching and research focus on public international law and on a range of challenges facing governments and international institutions since the Cold War, including ethnic conflict, border disputes, counter-terrorism strategies, corporate and state duties regarding foreign investment, and accountability for human rights violations.
Recently Published
International Law’s Impartiality – Myth and Reality
October 26, 2015
Steven R. Ratner
Editor's note: This post is a reaction to Frédéric Mégret's article issued last week by the European Society of International Law - ESIL Reflection: In Search of International Impartiality. Frederic Mégret offers us many questions about reconciling the project of international law with notions of impartiality. As he recognizes, impartiality is a multi-faceted concept, and our expectations for impartiality…
A Response to the Discussants
June 5, 2015
Steven R. Ratner
The responses to The Thin Justice of International law from four international lawyers and two philosophers represent a welcome continuation of the dialogue I have tried to catalyze with my book. Most of the comments were directed to the theoretical framework, rather than my individual conclusions about the justice of particular norms. So I will focus on those…
Introducing The Thin Justice of International Law
June 1, 2015
Steven R. Ratner
I begin with thanks to the editors of the two blogs that have organized this mini-symposium and to the five authors, from ethics and international law, who have agreed to comment on my book. I hope this experiment in interdisciplinary blogging will be the start of something bigger. The project that eventually became The Thin Justice…
Popular articles by Steven R. Ratner
Introducing The Thin Justice of International Law
June 1, 2015
Steven R. Ratner
I begin with thanks to the editors of the two blogs that have organized this mini-symposium and to the five authors, from ethics and international law, who have agreed to comment on my book. I hope this experiment in interdisciplinary blogging will be the start of something bigger. The project that eventually became The Thin Justice…
Introducing David Lefkowitz’s Philosophy and International Law
David Lefkowitz’s new book Philosophy and International Law: A Critical Introduction (Cambridge University Press, 2020) comes at a critical time in the conversation between international law scholars and practitioners, on the one hand, and philosophers, whether legal, moral, or political, on the other. More dialogue among scholars of international law and philosophy Until about fifteen years…
New Options for Investor Accountability in ISDS
ISDS emerged in the twentieth century to empower foreign investors to assert legal claims against host states without the intervention of their home state. But this understanding of international investment law (IIL) – investor rights and host state duties – is now a relic of the past. Yet because of their current asymmetrical nature, ISDS and IIL do…