This book is the report of a journey. The reader is invited to join the
author on a th trip in time and space. The trip takes its starting-point
in 17 century Europe and th the as yet confused post-Thirty Years War
society. After some stops in the 18 th and 19 century the author brings
us to the post-World War I society which is as confused and is torn
between ideals and despair. Then we make a stop in the post-World War II
society when ideals seemingly have made place for trust in power but
where we also get a glance of the fragile sapling of human rights law.
And finally we pause in the post-Cold War world and try to cast a look
into the future. What is the purpose of this journey, what is the author
in search of? As is clear from the title it is the concept of
International Legal Personality which for many will have a rather formal
and positive law connotation. But the journey does not take us into the
cabinets of Foreign Ministries or to conference-rooms or United
Nations-buildings where the law is made nor to the court-rooms where the
law is interpreted and modelled.