In "The Trump Administration and International Law," Harold Hongju Koh advances two descriptive claims about the efficacy of international law in the age of President Trump. First, international law has been effective in curtailing U.S. disobedience, despite Trump's antics. Second, it could also empower President Trump; the president would be more effective at achieving concrete policy goals if instead of dismissing international law, he harnessed it to get things done. The book's upshot is that international law can have real operational value, including, perhaps especially, for the United States. Yet Koh did not write the book just to reiterate that point. He clearly is worried that Trump is doing damage both to the enterprise of international law and to the U.S. relationship with it. Thus, he intends for the book to be a "call to action," imploring people to uphold international law and contest the Trump administration's antagonistic policies. This is where the book falls short. It does not give readers compelling reasons to fight not just against the Trump administration but for international law. What about international law is both worthwhile and at serious risk under President Trump? I argue in this Review Essay that, because the book focuses so intently on the material outcomes that international law might produce, it misses what's uniquely at stake in the current moment. A lot of law's value, both domestically and at the international level, lies in fostering a particular kind of argumentative practice. International law's argumentative practice is not, as some suggest, just cheap talk, a means for achieving concrete ends, or a smokescreen for reinforcing positions of dominance. It is worthwhile for reasons that are independent of its material outcomes. And it is deteriorating under President Trump.

中文翻译：

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我们为什么要关心国际法？

在“特朗普政府与国际法”中，Harold Hongju Koh 提出了两个关于特朗普总统时代国际法效力的描述性主张。首先，尽管特朗普的滑稽动作，国际法在遏制美国的不服从方面一直有效。其次，它还可以赋予特朗普总统权力；如果总统不是无视国际法，而是利用它来完成工作，那么他在实现具体的政策目标方面会更有效。这本书的结论是，国际法可以具有真正的操作价值，尤其是对美国而言。然而，Koh 写这本书并不是为了重申这一点。他显然担心特朗普正在损害国际法事业和美国与国际法的关系。因此，他打算将这本书写成“ 或用于加强支配地位的烟幕。出于独立于其物质结果的原因，这是值得的。在特朗普总统的领导下，情况正在恶化。