Literal ‘Decolonization’

2019 ◽  
pp. 383-403
Author(s):  
Christopher Gevers
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Legal Scholarship ◽  
Post Colonial

This chapter explores the role of African scholars in the context of the battle for international law. It focuses on scholars who were less prominent than Taslim O Elias or Mohammed Bedjaoui, but who also played an important role in internal African debates on post-colonial international law. It touches on the contextual nature of decolonization and the various viewpoints established by African scholars and provides a more nuanced account of African international legal scholarship. In taking this direction, the chapter thus attempts, within the scholarship and literature of decolonization, to unearth original voices that have largely been forgotten outside of Africa.

Italian Legal Scholarship of International Law in the Early Decades of the Twentieth Century

2020 ◽  
pp. 127-167
Author(s):  
Giulio Bartolini
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
International Law ◽  
Legal Positivism ◽  
Pivotal Role ◽  
The Political ◽  
Legal Scholarship ◽  
Positive Law

In 1931 Lauterpacht described the Italian scholarship as characterized by a ‘rigid and frequently uncompromising positivist school in international law’. While his statement has some merits, this chapter seeks both to illustrate how this trend emerged from previous approaches and, conversely, to emphasize the multifaceted perspectives that were effectively present in those decades, thus partly circumscribing Lauterpacht’s assertion. Following a survey of the fluid approaches present at the beginning of the twentieth century, this chapter will introduce the pivotal role of Dionisio Anzilotti in favoring legal positivism, even if dissident voices were still present or subsequently emerged. After Anzilotti, other poles of attraction emerged, in particular through Santi Romano and other scholars, who, while still claiming to adhere to the lines of positive law, deprived this conception of several of its original theoretical attributes. Conversely, few attempts were made to elaborate doctrines aimed at reflecting the political ambitions of Fascism, which was unsuccessful in influencing the broad theoretical debate.

scholarly journals The Future of International Legal Scholarship: Some Thoughts on ‘Practice’, ‘Growth’, and ‘Dissemination’

2013 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
CARSTEN STAHN ◽  
ERIC DE BRABANDERE
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Legal Discourse ◽  
Legal Scholarship ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
The Past ◽  
Niche Area ◽  
And Function ◽  
Changing Role ◽  
Role And Function

Like international legal scholarship, LJIL is in transition. Our colleagues, Larissa van den Herik and Jean d'Aspremont, who have shaped much of the role and plural identity of the journal over the past decade, in collaboration with our different sections, have passed leadership on to us, the new team of (co-)editors-in-chief. This editorial reflects on the changing role and function of scholarship in international law, a theme important to our predecessors and ourselves. This is to some extent a niche area. It has not received much attention in discourse. With some notable exceptions, legal journals are typically reluctant to address overarching meta-issues of discourse, i.e. issues of production of scholarship, the role of journals vis-à-vis other media, or the broader direction of the development of international legal scholarship. Such issues might be perceived as non-scientific by some. We feel that it is important to include such dimensions, including critical self-reflection on our discipline, in international legal discourse.

The Scandal of Enlightenment and the Birth of Disciplines: Is International Law a Science?

2010 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Prabhakar Singh
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Third World ◽  
The Other ◽  
Late Capitalism ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
The Third World

AbstractToday’s mainstream international law scholarship (MILS) is concerned primarily with the issue of its scientificity. This brings us to the larger epistemological questions of linear modernity, narratives of circular progress, role of colonisation and rejection of pre-science. International law is not a self-contained regime as it draws insights from all the other disciplines that were born after the Enlightenment. This article makes a psychological investigation using Nandy’s psycho-political framework under the third world approaches to international law (TWAIL). It also sees, as a case in point, the invasion of modernity via late capitalism into tribal life as modernity’s apology for the “third” disenchantment. International Law’s evolutionary scientificity, therefore, has been examined through psychology and mythology in the post-colonial world.

Third World Resistance as a Counter-hegemonic Phenomenon in Customary International Law

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-219
Author(s):  
Joycelin Chinwe Okubuiro
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Third World ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
Customary International Law ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Inclusive System ◽  
State Actors ◽  
The Third World ◽  
Western Perspective

The role of non-state actors in custom-making provokes divergent views, skewed by state practice and opinio juris and derived from a Western perspective, which promotes hegemony. This paper shines a new light on this perennial debate by presenting resistance of Third World non-state actors as a counter-hegemonic tool in the development of customary international law. It contributes to scholarship relating to non-state actors in the formation of custom from a Global South perspective by reflecting African reality. This has become relevant in the clamour for increased participation of the Third World in international affairs as post-colonial states are deemed ineffective in representing their interests. It is observed that non-state actors employ diverse mechanisms to assert their position in law-making, thereby expanding the frontiers of custom-making. This paper explores such roles by non-state actors in the development of international custom and recommends an inclusive system that accommodates these stakeholders in custom-making.

Western centrism, contemporary international law, and international courts

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Salvatore Caserta
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Sociological Institutionalism ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
Reflexive Sociology ◽  
Caribbean Court Of Justice ◽  
Global Scripts ◽  
The Eu

Abstract The article unpacks the notion of western centrism in contemporary international law by developing a framework to capture its varied patterns. It argues that western centrism can have three different manifestations – systemic, evaluative, and professional – depending on whether it refers to the rationality, the narratives, or the actors at play in the international legal field. The article then discusses three theoretical approaches that can help scholars dealing with western centrism in international (legal) scholarship. These are: (i) the critical readings of those scholars that explain international law through the lens of power and domination; (ii) the Stanford school of sociological institutionalism, which explains international institutions and norms through the role of culture and global scripts; and (iii) post-Bourdieusian reflexive sociology, which analyses the roles of transnational legal elites in colonial and post-colonial settings. Finally, the article reconstructs the experience of the Caribbean Court of Justice in the light of western centrism, demonstrating that, different from what is often argued in the literature, the Court is not a failed replica of the Court of Justice of the EU, but an institution in its own right, with its own approach to international law, its own successes and failures.

The Role of Academics in the Legal System

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Twining ◽  
Ward Farnsworth ◽  
Stefan Vogenauer ◽  
Tesón Fernando
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
International Law ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Civil Law ◽  
Legal Scholarship ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
System P ◽  
The Relationship

This article considers the ways in which legal scholars relate to and participate in practical legal affairs. The discussion covers audiences and influence of legal scholars in the United Kingdom; the relationship between the American legal academy and the institutions; civil law systems; the nature of international legal scholarship; and the influence of international legal scholars on international law.

Guest Editors’ Introduction: Towards Utopia – Rethinking International Law

2018 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 315-334
Author(s):  
Jens T. Theilen ◽  
Isabelle Hassfurther ◽  
Wiebke Staff
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
International Law ◽  
Special Section ◽  
Legal Scholarship ◽  
The Face ◽  
Critical Approaches

In the face of recent challenges to international law and its institutions, a sense of despair and resignation pervades some parts of international legal scholarship – a mindset which may work to close off the ability to think, feel, and imagine alternatives. As a counterpoint to such despair, this paper explores the potential of utopianism as a framework for rethinking international law which provides grounds for hope. Building on the articles contained in the Special Section “Towards Utopia – Rethinking International Law” which it introduces, the paper discusses three topoi of utopianism in relation to international law: first, the diversity of utopian approaches, ranging from grand blueprints to everyday utopias; second, the relation of utopianism to critique, and specifically to critical approaches to international law; and third, the complicated role of international law in relation to social change.

scholarly journals A Critical Appraisal of the International Legal Tradition of Taslim Olawale Elias

2008 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 317-349 ◽  
Author(s):  
JAMES THUO GATHII
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Legal History ◽  
Critical Appraisal ◽  
Legal Tradition ◽  
Legal Scholarship ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Colonial Legacy

AbstractThis essay critically examines T. O. Elias's international legal scholarship, especially in so far as he sought to reclaim, or claim, a place in international legal history for Africa. Having found that Africa contributed to the formation of international law, Elias argued in favour of reforming its rules so that they could serve the interests of the newly independent African states. In this respect he influenced many contemporary international lawyers in Africa and elsewhere. In particular, his singling out of sovereignty as a barrier to reforming international law is shared by generations of international legal scholars who have criticized states for placing too high a premium on their sovereignty, thereby placing insuperable barriers to their acceptance of egalitarian goals, expressed by, for example, the international bill of human rights. The essay also contrasts Elias to scholars of international law who took the colonial legacy of international law as a barrier to reforming it so that it was consistent with the interests of so-called post-colonial African states.

Delineating the Normativity of Equity in International Law

2009 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 327-347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anastasios Gourgourinis
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Legal Scholarship ◽  
General Principles Of Law ◽  
International Adjudication ◽  
Normative Foundations

AbstractThe role of equity and equitable principles in international adjudication has long been subject to debate in international legal scholarship, one of the main reasons being the obscurity in properly identifying the normative foundations of equity in international law. This study addresses this issue in specific by providing a three-tier analytical discourse with a view to delineate equity's normativity. In this sense, it is, first, acknowledged that equity has been envisaged as forming part of the wider corpus of positive international law; then, equity is examined vis-à-vis the doctrine of “sources”; finally, the analysis turns to the “routes of entry” of equity in international law, i.e. via treaty, custom, and, most prominently, equitable principles, themselves “general principles of law” of Art. 38(1)(c) of the I.C.J. Statute.

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