The new issue of the Michigan Law Review (vol 106, no 6, April 2008; available online) contains the 2008 survey of books related to the law. This year, the survey also deals with some interesting international law issues. There were in particular two contributions that caught my interest. Firstly, the foreword of Judge Patricia M Wald (inter alia former Judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia) that gives a brief overview of the achievements of war crimes tribunals and how those achievements relate to recurring themes of epic tales of war (!). The approach adopted by Judge Wald is…