Critical International Law: Postrealism, Postcolonialism, and Transnationalism
Prabhakar Singh and Benoît Mayer
Abstract
Scholars have always thought of international law critically for some time now. This book reflects three broad movements within critical international law scholarship. Postrealism, to begin with, addresses the changing ways of conceiving the tensions between international laws and international politics. Postcolonialism then records and analysis doubts about international law’s Eurocentricsm and its subsequent universalization. Finally, transnationalism sees international law not as interstate law, or only as states as the primary subject of law, but appreciates the tremendous power of private ... More
Scholars have always thought of international law critically for some time now. This book reflects three broad movements within critical international law scholarship. Postrealism, to begin with, addresses the changing ways of conceiving the tensions between international laws and international politics. Postcolonialism then records and analysis doubts about international law’s Eurocentricsm and its subsequent universalization. Finally, transnationalism sees international law not as interstate law, or only as states as the primary subject of law, but appreciates the tremendous power of private actors, NGOs, and non-state actors that reshape the doctrine and function of international law. This book reintroduces critical international law to a broader audience. It wrestles with the summary rejection of ‘the crits’. To the subject of international law, internalizing criticism, the book argues, is vital.
Keywords:
international law,
realism,
postrealism,
colonialism,
postcolonialism,
transnationalism,
critical
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2014 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199450633 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: November 2014 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199450633.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Prabhakar Singh, editor
President's Graduate Fellow/Associate, Centre for International Law, Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore
Benoît Mayer, editor
PhD candidate/Research scholar, National University of Singapore
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