This chapter provides a short introduction to the overarching questions that shape international law across different approaches, doctrines, and fields of international law. The questions highlighted in this sense involve the relationship between international law and violence, consent as arguably the most important principle permeating the entirety of international law, enforcement of international law (or lack thereof), and self-determination. By familiarising themselves with these topics, students are invited to reflect on questions that have been haunting international law for centuries; that is, whether it contributes to making the world a better place or whether and how it can at least be harnessed for resistance, whether it is ‘really’ law, and whether and to what degree it can be compared to other legal systems.