We have analyzed the spectrum of international legalization from soft informal agreements
through intermediate blends of obligation, precision, and delegation to hard
legal arrangements. Although even hard international law does not approach stereotypical
conceptions of law based on advanced domestic legal systems, international legalization nevertheless represents a distinctive form of institutionalization. Ultimately,
we can only understand the inclination of actors to cast their relations in legal
form, and the variety of ways in which they do so, in terms of the value those institutional
forms provide for them. Put plainly, international legalization is a diverse
phenomenon because it helps a diverse universe of states and other actors resolve
diverse problems.