Is International Law International?
Is International Law International?
Anthea Roberts and Foreword by Martti Koskenniemi
Oxford University Press 2017
- Powerfully challenges the conception that international law is universal and that international lawyers exist in a single “invisible college”
- Guides readers through the “divisible college of international lawyers,” showing how international law academics in different states have different incoming influences and outgoing spheres of influence in ways that affect how they understand and approach international law
- Explores factors that lead to this divisible college, including differences in where international lawyers in different states study, the languages and places in which they publish, and the connections they commonly have to practice
- Demonstrates similarities and differences in how international law textbooks approach international law using eye-catching graphics and helpful visual representations like word clouds
- Explores how Western approaches in general, and Anglo-American approaches in particular, have had a disproportionate influence in defining what counts as the “international” as a result of factors such as the turn to English as the lingua franca for international law
- Shows how differences in the way international lawyers approach international law manifests itself in concrete contemporary controversies, such as Russia’s annexation of/reunification with Crimea and the South China Sea arbitral award
This book takes the reader on a sweeping tour of the international legal field to reveal some of the patterns of difference, dominance, and disruption that belie international law’s claim to universality.
Pulling back the curtain on the “divisible college of international lawyers”, Anthea Roberts shows how international lawyers in different states, regions, and geopolitical groupings are often subject to distinct incoming influences and outgoing spheres of influence in ways that reflect and reinforce differences in how they understand and approach international law. These divisions manifest themselves in contemporary controversies, such as debates about Crimea and the South China Sea.
Not all approaches to international law are created equal, however. Using case studies and visual representations, the author demonstrates how actors and materials from some states and groups have come to dominate certain transnational flows and forums in ways that make them disproportionately influential in constructing the “international”. This point holds true for Western actors, materials, and approaches in general, and for Anglo-American (and sometimes French) ones in particular.
However, these patterns are set for disruption. As the world moves past an era of Western dominance and toward greater multipolarity, it is imperative for international lawyers to understand the perspectives and approaches of those coming from diverse backgrounds. By taking readers on a comparative tour of different international law academies and textbooks, the author encourages them to see the world through the eyes of others – an essential skill in this fast changing world of shifting power dynamics and rising nationalism.