Lincoln's Legacy for American International Law

Is the United States, as an international actor, different from all other international actors? If so, how is it different? What makes it different? How does American sovereignty fit into a larger conception of international law?

These questions go back to the beginning of the Republic, and they remain pressing today. Many have debated this question in terms of the legacy of the Founding. Some find in the Founding the seeds of multilateralism and perhaps even cosmopolitanism; others, rejecting this interpretation, advance a nationalist and unilateralist account of the Founding. But the Founding is not the whole story.