Born Again Lawyer: FATU as An Antidote to the ‘Positivist Blues’

Prost, Mario

Abstract

For some time, there has been something paradoxical about Martti Koskenniemi's From Apology to Utopia (hereinafter FATU). FATU might very well have been the single most influential book of the last 15 years in the field of international legal theory. Virtually all of my colleagues have, at one point or another, engaged with it and used it to sustain their arguments in diverse areas of the law (including, amusingly enough, even in commercial arbitration). Yet, as is well known to most law library users, FATU has long been out of print, making it extremely difficult to find a copy, even more so when, as is periodically the case at my home university, the available copy goes missing. FATU, in other words, seemed to be everywhere, but nowhere to be found. The prophet had believers. His tables of the Law, however, seemed to have disappeared. The splendid republication of FATU comes as great news to all of us who have struggled to access, let alone to possess, this seminal book.

Citation

Prost, M. (2006). Born Again Lawyer: FATU as An Antidote to the ‘Positivist Blues’. German Law Journal, 7(12), 1037-1043. https://doi.org/10.1017/s2071832200005289

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Mar 6, 2019
• Publication Date: Dec 1, 2006
• Deposit Date: Jun 10, 2024
• Journal: German Law Journal
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 7
• Issue: 12
• Pages: 1037-1043
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/s2071832200005289
• Public URL: https://keele-repository.worktribe.com/output/848535
• Publisher URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/german-law-journal/article/born-again-lawyer-fatu-as-an-antidote-to-the-positivist-blues/E8D3F67C9276FA1B7B03D0C028B26A3F