Introduction to International Law and its Histories

Transcription

1 Introduction to International Law and its Histories JUFN29, spring 2017 Faculty of Law, Lund University Matilda Arvidsson

2 Overview of the course (1) Theory and examples (17 Feb 23 Feb) (2) Method and examples (27 Feb 3 March) (3) Essay our own contribution (think abt it already now 27 Feb: assignment 2 March non-mandatory tutorial 6 March: hand in topics)

3 How to read international law and its histories in our own present time? - And why? (1) A history of the past/a history of the present? - What makes us ask about a history, or histories, of international law? (2) Where do we find our histories? Where do we find internatonal law? A material-methodology question guided by theory: In archives (which archives), in the chocholate we indulge in (which objects), in the mapping of illegal neighborhoods (whose lives), in the development of certain technologies (which innovations)? (3) A history for whom and by whom?: international law s histories are always told by someone and for someone with a persuasive aim

4 Approaches to international law and its histories: looking at the book Grand narratives (versus local and temporary knowledge) - Universal in aim, teleological in their narrative method, Eurocentric (Becker Lorca, chap. 43). Owned by lawyers (we do not ask political philosphers, historians, architects, etc.): strictly legal - The study of singular concepts, institutions, actors as part of a grand narrative The biographical approach - Tracing the conciousness of legal history (Koskenniemi) - Relevant questions: what kind of argument is formulated, at what time/place, and in relation to which other arguments existing at the time? - Relevant factors: context of ideology, religion, politics, intellectual exchange Fassbender & Peters: a global legal history - mapping the world in terms of histories of international law - a multiplicity of local histories makes international law global - deconstructs grand narratives - focus on encounters, ideologies, and a variety of actors - draws methodologically on comparative legal histories - emancipatory aim - BUT: where and when does this history start/end? (is it really global?)

5 Approaches to international law and its histories: looking at the book You learn what international law is through constructing its history (so what s the story here?) If we write the history through its scholars it becomes a discipline decided through scholarship (what about practice?), and it easily becomes framed through a male, white, experience (where is the rest of the world in this?)

6 Approaches to international law and its histories (cont.) Unheard stories - unsettling grand narratives - focus on actors, institutions, time-periods, objects, or events which are rarely taken to matter in terms of international law and its history Mixing biographical and other approaches - tracing a particular consciousness in order to re-evaluate present conditions in intenrational law Interdisciplinarity - mapping the world in terms of histories of international law might involve thinking about the development of cartographic science - thinking about an object: the example of milk (Otomo, The gentle Canibal)

7 Approaches to international law and its histories (cont.) Narrative perspective: - the omniscient writer (God s authoritative voice) - the subjective point of view (who tells the story, from where, and for which purpose?) Selectivity: Facts, documents, events, developments, persons: which of these furthers the particular narrative I want to pursue as a tale-teller of international law?. Ideology and theory will be the driving force. Multiplicity: Which part in a larger set of histories is this/my particular history: how to relate a particular history within international legal scholarship at large

8 The Cambridge School, or, the Contextualist school Political texts can only be understood correctly by locating them within their intellectual context and, in turn, that this intellectual context can only be properly understood in terms of the language available to individual authors. The key to understanding a text thus lies in understanding the language within which an author makes a particular statement.

9 References and further reading Yoriko Otomo (2013): The Gentle Canibal, Australian Feminist Law Journal