Course in International Law at the Hague Academy in 1991: ‘Can there really be anything new or interesting still to say, or is not all wisdom and scholarship already gathered in the Collected General Courses?’1 Given her achievements and status as a scholar of international law even then, one might consider it folly to ever endeavour to write comprehensively on the topic of public international law. Of course, Higgins did deliver the Course and publish her highly regarded Problems and Process thereafter, and went on not only to publish important works but to preside over the World Court and deliver important opinions and decisions. The point of course is that, like international law itself, scholarship must continue to be written. As the law progresses or recedes, as challenges to conceptions and practices of international law arise, new ideas and perspectives emerge. These ideas and perspectives need to be developed and explained through a range of academic and practice experiences, as reliance on the same views over time threatens to stifl e thought and debate in a profoundly dynamic area of law. This book then is a modest contribution to this ever-evolving scholarship.