DDRO 25A35 - (Un)making the World: Critical Approaches to International Law

The objective of this course is to introduce students to critical approaches to international law and to excavate the ideas that help shape international law’s subjects, categories, and boundaries. We will engage with theories that challenge the narrative of international law as a universal project that provides order and stability to the “international community”. We’ll consider the implications of framing international law as a discourse of peace, justice, solidarity, and (sovereign) equality.

This course consists of 2 parts. In the first part we will draw on the work of TWAIL scholars to explore the centrality of the colonial encounter in producing international law’s actors – the State, the Victim, the Perpetrator, and the ‘International Community’. In the second part we will consider how we become attached to law and how the discourse presents a crisis of imagination that makes alternative social arrangements unthinkable.

None

10%: Weekly questions

Each week (starting from week 3) students must email one or two question(s) or reflection(s) about the reading. The purpose of this exercise is to ensure that students read and engage with the prescribed texts consistently and actively. This is not intended to be a reaction to the text itself but rather what kind of questions/ thoughts the text provoked. The questions must be uploaded to Moodle by Monday (17.00) the week before the class.

40%: Class Test

50%: Final Essay

At the end of the semester students will be required to formulate a research topic based on the readings from the course, which will be explores in an academic essay of 2 000-2 500 words (excluding references).