Book review; Leiden Journal of International Law No 2, 2018 (original) (raw)
Introduction to "Symposium on Cosmopolitan Law and the Courts" - Transnational Legal Theory 2016
The thesis of a "cosmopolitan turn" of a state's constitutionalism has quite extensively influenced the debate over the contemporary transformation of international law. 1 A Copernican revolution of sorts, it has consisted not only of a phenomenological shift, but also of the creation of a new paradigm for the definition of legitimate domestic orders. The cosmopolitan turn has also run parallel to the constitutionalization of international law. Here, constitutionalization is neither simply a process of legalization nor, obviously, a constitution as such. 2 This is due to the fact that constitutionalization implies a number of processes which international law undergoes together with a multiplicity of purposes that are served therewith. It indicates the transformation of bilateral or multilateral agreements into higher order principles of wider scope. In order for this transformation to be possible, a shift in reasoning should precede, one moving away from an instrumental, technocratic form into a value-based approach of legal reasoning. This value inclusion within legal thinking is what the term "constitutionalism" aims to capture. As a mode of reasoning -as a "mindset" -constitutionalism subordinates laws to values such as those of equality, human dignity, or freedom. 3 Constitutionalism though indicates also a process of self-reflexivity. It
Living in International Law (2012)
Essay in Reading Modern Law. Critical methodologies and sovereign formations: Essays in honour of Peter Fitzpatrick Edited by Ruth Buchanan, Stewart Motha, and Sundhya Pahuja (Routledge 2012)
LEX HUMANA, 2023
Transdisciplinarity has started to attract attention in teaching and research, including in international law, because finding the most appropriate solutions is a current challenge in the context of the dynamism given to international society by the chromatic of numerous mutations, global crises and developments. New technologies and discoveries in biology and medicine can lead to new and disciplinarily complex situations that require an adapted legal response. Sustainable development often expressed through the alternative concept of living well within integral development and modern technologies have changed the way people work and business is conducted, producing an increase in inter-connectivity and collaboration against issues of adaptation to different cultures, age differences, perceptions and ways of working, characteristics that are beginning to circulate in research and education. Our proposals and conclusions concern the adaptation of international academic work and in essence truly herald the season of change for which the key is multi-and transdisciplinary preparation for this new era. For the elaboration of this article, we used the exploratory method, based on primary and secondary sources.
Globalization & the Law. Syllabus. Winter 2015. Osgoode Hall Law School, York University
This seminar interrogates law's relationship with capitalism and colonialism by studying the political, social, and economic structures produced by international legal institutions, and how social movements have deployed law to resist the changing forms of contemporary global capitalism. The first theme of the course addresses 'structures' of international law. It examines the way in which law produces structural relationships impacting issues pertaining to race, gender, and class. These relationships are most clearly manifested through the various interventions of international institutions in the global south. Therefore, students will reflect on the historical relationship between international legal institutions and colonial, and neo-colonial practices. The second theme of the course addresses resistance against these structures. In particular, it focuses on the 'agency' of diverse social movements, from the Arab revolutions, to the Occupy Movement, to anti-austerity movements in Greece, to the Quebec Student Strike, and Idle No More. More specifically, we will look at how social movements use the law, and the legal system in defence of their struggles. The third theme in the course draws all this together, by presenting different theoretical approaches from the various strands of the critical legal tradition(s) (such as: feminist, and queer legal theory, critical race theory, Third World Approaches to International Law, etc. …). These are intended to provide the analytical toolkit necessary to reflect on, and respond to the materials of the course.
International Law as Law (2010)
CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO INTERNATIONAL LAW, James Crawford and Martti Koskenniemi, eds., 2010, 2010
This draft chapter is an attempt to discuss debates on the character of international law as a legal system. The chapter seeks to identify certain ideal-typical characteristics of international law and sees how those affect the debate on whether international law is "really law." It suggests that international law's distinctiveness is that it is a legal system that resists both reform through centralization, absorption by empires, or dissolution through privatization. Note: this is a non-edited version, only the published version is complete and quotable.
Many Faces of International Law: Critiques and Limits, Course Manual
2014
This is the syllabus for an international law elective course (critical approaches) that I have been teaching since 2014. It undergoes periodic modification and is illustrative of the many ways international law can be taught (and operates). This is not a course critiquing international law immanently. It is a course that reveals international law for what it is. Please feel free to use it and share with credits.
LAW AND GLOBALIZATION: A CRITIQUE OF A DIALECTIC RELATION - DOI: 10.12818/P.0304-2340.2020v77p339
2020
The connections between Law or, more broadly, normativity, and globalization have been the object of intense scholarly scrutiny for the past three decades. This debate has produced expressions such as “Global Law”, re-signified “Transnational Law” and explored notions such as “Internationalization of Law”. Such literature has not translated, however, into conceptual consensus, nor has it been able to fully explore the complex interplay between two of the central concepts in the field, namely, “Law of globalization” and “Law in globalization”. This paper discusses and problematizes the connections between these two concepts. It aims at highlighting the complexities involving the debate on normativity and globalization, and at pointing out to risks that some of the dynamics involved in these dimensions pose to the rule of Law. The argument starts with a critical review of the literature on the field, and then presents the descriptive-analytical perspective it adopts to examine this ph...