Miéville (a member of the editorial board of Historical Materialism) presents an account of international law derived from Critical Legal Studies and the Marxist theories of Evgeny Pashukanis. He argues that international law must be understood as the general globalization of market relations in the transition to capitalism, noting that maritime and merchant law, as regulators of the arenas in which market relations were first conducted across polities in a systematic way, are critical to the development of international law. He concludes that the coercive political violence of imperialism is embedded within international law as part of the very nature of international law and seeks to demonstrate this through a case study of the Gulf War of 1990-1991. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)