This book critically examines existing theories of international law and makes the case for an alternative Marxist approach. China Mieville draws on the pioneering jurisprudence of Evgeny Pashukanis linking law to commodity exchange, and in turn uses international law to make better sense of Pashukanis. Mieville argues that despite its advances, the recent 'New Stream' of radical international legal scholarship, like the mainstream it opposes, fails to make sense of the legal form itself. Drawing on Marxist theory and a critical history of international law from the sixteenth century to the present day, Mieville seeks to address that failure, and argues that international law is fundamentally constituted by the violence of imperialism.