Essentially, if one adopts the line that Martti Koskenniemi puts forward in From Apology to Utopia then most actions can plausibly be argued as legal, utilising either a descending or ascending argument (one based on sovereignty *or* the ‘world community’). These arguments are of course irresolvable. In his book ‘Between Equal Rights: A Marxist Theory of International Law’, China Mieville postulates that these ‘arguments’ are resolved precisely on the basis of material strength (insofar as argument cannot resolve them). On this reading international law will almost never serve to defend the weak, as it is through international law that ‘material’ strength is articulated.