In an era of exponential expansion of public international law marked by fragmentation and specialization where lex specialis prevails and iex generalis seems to be all but over,1this excellent work by Vice Chancellor J.L. Kaul, Dr. Anupam Jha, and the learned contributors tells us a special story. The unusual story is about how the SAARC region may have contributed to the progressive development of late post-Westphalian international legal development. The work is focussed on ‘peripheral’ nations. This is a precious focus as contributions of such nations to the making and unmaking of international law have gone largely unrecognized. The term ‘peripheral’ has some wholesome meanings.2 Kaul and Jha write (in the Introduction) that the SAARC contributions to international ‘negotiations’ regarding international law were rarely considered. A ‘newer grouping of nations’ is itself an important development, enhanced when perceived as a ‘challenge to status quo in international affairs’ and the fact that ‘nations of South Asia have asserted their collective will which is, at times, at variance with the common will of other nations’. The work in your hands speaks about the ‘greater involvement of these nations, which … have greatly influenced outcomes of international law making’. And yet the sad fact is that the contributions made by the SAARC region ‘are yet to be’ fully explored or even acknowledged in the burgeoning literature on international law.