Preface
This book—Selected Essays of W. Michael Reisman—was compiled to honor our teacher, Professor Michael Reisman, on his 80th birthday, which was celebrated in Deqing adjacent to Hangzhou Municipality, Zhejiang Province of China. At Michael’s 70th birthday celebration we decided to hold his 80th birthday celebration in China. Since then, we were on the look-out for the right place to pay a fitting tribute to Professor Reisman—an internationally renowned scholar and yet an unassuming human being.
During our search, we came across Deqing, which has a great cultural heritage and the potential to become a vibrant hub for Hi-tech in artificial intelligence. It is also the birth place of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China. Once we came across Deqing, where the mountainous areas are dotted with old residences of dignitaries of the Guomindang Government and foreign investors—we were left in no doubt that it was the right place for our celebration. What is more, we were much encouraged by the enthusiasm of local government officials—Governor Wang Qinying and her colleagues. When she heard about Professor Reisman’s immense contribution to law, she insisted that the event should be held in Deqing. Her unsurpassable eagerness and sincerity convinced us all. The decision was made.
Thanks to the enthusiastic support of Governor Wang and her colleagues, the birthday celebration was a complete success; more than 100 judges, professors and young scholars from all over the world gathered in Deqing. The 9th Conference on New Haven School of Jurisprudence and International Law was held alongside the celebration and Professor Reisman delivered the keynote address. Many of the participants were Michael’s students though not necessarily at Yale Law School. For instance, in attendance were a number of senior Chinese judges, who had studied under him in an academic program offered by City University of Hong Kong. Those who were not his students were no less admirers of this great scholar!
Professor Reisman is not only greatly admired as a scholar: He is also greatly respected for who he is, a caring teacher and friend. We all have fond memories of how Michael guided us in our studies and our personal endeavors, encouraging us to pursue our beliefs and convictions. We are indeed very fortunate to have Professor Reisman as our teacher and friend.
Professor Reisman is an ardent advocate of the New Haven School of Jurisprudence, the brainchild of Professors Myres S. McDougal and Harold D. Lasswell. For Professor Reisman, lawmaking is a process of communication: “[a]ll groups are, perforce, communications networks.” He observes that “[l]awmaking, though often regulated by law, is a political process and, as such, involves another, indispensable component: power, the capacity and willingness to make a preferential expression effective.” He describes law as a process of authoritative and controlling decision, which comprises seven components: intelligence, promotion, prescription, invocation, application, termination and appraisal. Professor Reisman considers it a task of all international scholars “to fashion conceptual tools for understanding, collecting and processing relevant data about the lawmaking which occurs in the widely varying circumstances of international law… and to apply the skills of the jurist to influence the process so as to secure desired outcomes.” The ultimate purpose of this task is to help create a world public order of human dignity. These Selected Essays aim to reflect the contemporary status of the New Haven School of Jurisprudence.
This book gathers together 20 articles written by Professor Reisman, representative of his contribution to international scholarship. They are divided into six parts: jurisprudence, international law, war, human rights, international organizations and international investment law.
Many worked very hard for months on end to bring out this publication: to them all we extend our warmest thanks. We owe a special debt of gratitude to Ms Cina Santos (Professor Reisman’s assistant), Dr. ZHU Ying and Ms. LIANG Bingjie. Special thanks must also go to the Law Press for the excellent finish of this important work.
Guiguo WANG
Eason-Weinmann Chair of International and Comparative Law
School of Law
Tulane University, USA
University Professor of Law
Guanghua Law School
Zhejiang University, China