An incisive denunciation of the hypocrisy of humanitarian intervention

Victors’ Justice is a potent and articulate polemic against the manipulation of international penal law as an instrument of Western power, combining historical detail, juridical precision and philosophical analysis. Zolo’s key thesis is that contemporary international law functions as a two-track system: a made-to-measure law for the hegemons and their allies, on the one hand, and a punitive regime for the losers and the disadvantaged, on the other. Though it constantly advertises its impartiality and universalism, international law has served to bolster and legitimize, ever since the Tokyo and Nuremberg trials, a fundamentally unilateral, asymmetrical and unequal international order.

Praise for Victors’ Justice:

“Zolo has developed an illuminating and unusually coherent critique of the international legal order, its aspirations, its many uses, its successes and failures.” — Chase Madar, London Review of Books

Praise for Invoking Humanity:

“Danilo Zolo has written a brilliantly provocative and fascinating critique of US-led NATO strategy in the Balkans that is a troubling indictment of all aspects of ‘humanitarian diplomacy’.” — Richard Falk, Princeton University

“This is a powerful and well-argued book. All those who believe in the justice of humanitarian military intervention and the legality of the enforcement of human rights by international tribunals should read it. It will force them to think whether they are right.” — Paul Hirst, Birkbeck College, University of London

Danilo Zolo is Professor of Philosophy and Sociology of Law at the University of Florence. He is the author of several books, including Democracy and Complexity, Cosmopolis: Prospects for World Government, and Invoking Humanity: War, Law and Global Order.