International Incidents: New Genre or New Delusion?

In his introduction to the Special Feature in the Fall 1984 issue of the Yale Journal of International Law, Professor Reisman proclaimed the study of "incidents" as a "new genre in the study of international law."' Although Reisman's article is challenging, innovative, and eminently readable-as one would expect from his pen-one must nevertheless question whether the incident methodology is truly a new genre, as he claims, or whether this belief is simply a delusion which distracts us from the more serious problems of studying international law.