The contributions included in this book, all written by renowned scholars, examine some of the long-standing fundamental issues of international law. The main part concerns the question: how is international law made and applied? A highly original, systematic assessment of the formation of customary international law by Herman Meijers - now for the first time published in English - provides an answer to this question. Two other long-standing fundamental issues are examined. Firstly, the plausibility of the hypothesis that international law is complete on the basis of the existence of a so-called 'closing rule'. Secondly, a study of the principle of the genuine link in the modern law of the sea demonstrates that its livelihood is so limited that a post mortem is justified. The volume is concluded by a discussion on a paradoxical aspect of the law of treaties, namely regarding the right of the parties to terminate their agreements.