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Outsourcing in American law is proceeding. Foreign law has made its controversial appearance in the Supreme Court's decisions on individual rights. Some customary international law has become a part of federal law through the 1789 Alien Tort Statute. The laws of war have provided the rules of decision for the cases on the Bush administration's policies in the war on terrorism. Advocates of these developments would like to see even more use of foreign and international law in U.S. judicial decisions and the American legal system more broadly.

The essays here have debated the legitimacy of these developments. This is probably the most important issue about the growing pressure toward the use of international and foreign law in the United States. In this conclusion, I would like to fill in other parts of the story: why these issues have arisen now, and what their consequences might be.

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