International Law
Featured writings
Traditional and Modern Approaches to Customary International Law
A Reconciliation
American Journal of International Law, Volume 95, 2001
Comparative International Law?
The Role of National Courts in Creating and Enforcing International Law
International & Comparative Law Quarterly, Volume 60, 2011
The Emerging Recognition of Universal Civil Jurisdiction
American Journal of International Law, Volume 100, 2006 (with Donald Francis Donovan)
Law-Making by Non-State Actors
Engaging Armed Groups in the Creation of International Humanitarian Law
Yale Journal of International Law, Volume 37, 2012 (with Sandesh Sivakumaran)
As a public international lawyer generalist, Anthea has written on a broad range of international law topics ranging from questions about the sources of international law (including the theory of customary international law, the role of national courts in creating and applying international law, and the theory and reality of the doctrine of sources) to topics on particular areas of international law (including human rights, jurisdiction and international humanitarian law).
Anthea has written extensively on the idea of comparative international law. Through a series of books, articles and symposia, she has explored cross-national similarities and differences in the way in which international law is understood, interpreted, applied, and approached by different actors in and from different states. As the world moves into an age of declining US and Western power and rising multipolarity, Anthea argues that it will become more important to understand the approaches of different great powers.
Anthea also served as a Reporter for the American Law Institute’s Restatement (Fourth) of the Foreign Relations Law of the United States. The Restatement covers both international law as it applies to and in the United States and domestic law that has substantial foreign relations or international law consequences. Anthea was the first foreign academic to ever be appointed as a Reporter for a US Restatement project.
Other publications and presentations
“Introduction to the Symposium on Global Labs of International Commercial Dispute Resolution,” (2021) 115 American Journal of International Law Unbound 1
Symposium on Is International Law International? in Boston University Law Review Online 99 B.U. L. Rev. Online 14, 16 (2019)
Restatement (Fourth) of U.S. Foreign Relations Law, 2018, American Law Institute
“The Theory and Reality of the Doctrine of Sources,” in Malcolm Evans (ed), International Law (Oxford University Press, 2018) (with Sandesh Sivakumaran)
“Conceptualizing Comparative International Law,” (with Paul Stephan, Pierre-Hugues Verdier & Mila Versteeg) in Anthea Roberts, Paul Stephan, Pierre-Hugues Verdier & Mila Versteeg (eds), Comparative International Law (Oxford University Press, 2018)
“Crimea and the South China Sea: Connections and Disconnects Among Chinese, Russian and Western International Lawyers,” in Anthea Roberts, Paul Stephan, Pierre-Hugues Verdier & Mila Versteeg (eds), Comparative International Law (Oxford University Press, 2018)
“Cross-Border Student Flows and the Construction of International Law as a Transnational Legal Field,” (2018) 3 UC Irvine Journal of International, Transnational, and Comparative Law 1
“Introduction: The BRICS Approach to the Investment Treaty System,” (2018) 112 American Journal of International Law Unbound 187 (with Congyan Cai)
Symposium on Is International Law International? on Opinio Juris and EJIL: Talk!, 2018
Symposium on Is International Law International? in Questions of International Law (online), 2018 QIL, Zoom-in 54
“Comparative International Law: Framing the Field,” (2015) 109 American Journal of International Law 467 (with Paul Stephan, Pierre-Hugues Verdier & Mila Versteeg)
“Comparative International Law? The Role of National Courts in International Law”(2011) 60 International & Comparative Law Quarterly 57
“Who Killed Article 38(1)(b)? A Reply to Bradley and Gulati,” (2010) 21 Duke Journal of Comparative & International Law 173 (invited symposium contribution)
“Legality vs. Legitimacy: Can Uses of Force be Illegal but Justified?,” in Philip Alston (ed.), Human Rights, Intervention and the Use of Force 179 (Oxford University Press, 2008)
“Righting Wrongs or Wronging Rights? The United States and Human Rights Post-September 11,“ (2004) 15 European Journal of International Law 721