Rousseau's State

Tara Helfman, Syracuse University College of Law, has published Nasty, Brutish and False: Rousseau's State in the International Order at 39 Syracuse Journal of International Law 357 (2012). Here is the abstract.

Focusing on the writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, this article offers an account of an important episode in the historical development of international legal theory: the emergence of a conception of the state as a singular agent, a fictional person that behaves differently from the people who constitute it. In the process, this article challenges prevailing interpretations of Rousseau's place in the Western tradition of international thought and also situates him in the positivist tradition of international law.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.