TRAIL-ing TWAIL: Arguments and Blind Spots in Third World Approaches to International Law

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
John D. Haskell
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Third World ◽  
Blind Spots

Correcting twail’s Blind Spots

2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-52
Author(s):  
Antonius R. Hippolyte
Keyword(s):  
International Economic ◽  
International Trade ◽  
International Law ◽  
Foreign Investment ◽  
Third World ◽  
Economic Governance ◽  
Trade Regimes ◽  
Blind Spots

Third World Approaches to International Law (twail) may serve as an apt critique for examination of international economic governance from a Third World angle, given its intimate concern for the welfare of these States in international law. twail’s critique has improved significantly in terms of quality and quantity. Nevertheless, the critique continues to be plagued by a fundamental shortcoming, namely, it merely critiques international law systems and fails to provide suggestions for reforming them to suit the needs of Third World States. This is particularly true in relation to its critique of international economic governance. While twail has produced numerous critiques of the foreign investment and international trade regimes since its emergence, these have failed to provide any constructive suggestions for improvement in these areas. twail should therefore aspire to be more than a tool of system criticism and offer practical solutions to improve Third World States’ place within this system.

TRAIL-ing TWAIL: Arguments and Blind Spots in Third World Approaches to International Law

2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 383-414 ◽  
Author(s):  
John D. Haskell
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Global Governance ◽  
Third World ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Global Regulation ◽  
Future Possibility ◽  
Colonial Experience ◽  
Blind Spots

Beginning in the early 1990s, Third World Approaches to International Law scholarship (TWAIL) destabilized the mainstream narrative within international law that its doctrines were constituted by the historic search for order between formally equal state sovereigns. Instead, TWAIL scholars argued that the key constitutive dynamic of the discipline was the colonial experience, which continues to hold powerful sway over the legal architecture of global regulation whereby international law functions to perpetuate inequality and oppression. At the same time, however, TWAIL scholarship regularly posits international law as an emancipatory force that may be mobilized on behalf of former colonized populations and other marginalized social identities. The rise of post-Marxist scholarship, and more generally, the turn to interdisciplinary within the profession in recent years offers an opportunity to analyze this curious paradox and construct alternative modes of analysis for future TWAIL scholarship. In the first section, the paper draws upon a diverse array of TWAIL scholars over the last thirty years to map the argumentative logic within TWAIL literature. In the second section, the paper incorporates debates and insights from complimentary academic disciplines to illuminate some blind spots within TWAIL’s central arguments, and potentially ‘radicalize’ its future possibility of critique against the growing inequality within global governance.

Self-Determination and Territorial Integrity: Southern Cameroons and the Republic of Cameroun

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 629-653
Author(s):  
Valerie Muguoh Chiatoh
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Third World ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Territorial Integrity ◽  
Present Issue ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Relationship

African states and institutions believe that the principle of territorial integrity is applicable to sub-state groups and limits their right to self-determination, contrary to international law. The Anglophone Problem in Cameroon has been an ever-present issue of social, political and economic debates in the country, albeit most times in undertones. This changed as the problem metamorphosed into an otherwise preventable devastating armed conflict with external self-determination having become very popular among the Anglophone People. This situation brings to light the drawbacks of irregular decolonisation, third world colonialism and especially the relationship between self-determination and territorial integrity in Africa.

Legal Perspectives

2018 ◽  
pp. 78-103
Author(s):  
José E. Alvarez
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Third World ◽  
Legal Positivism ◽  
Scholarly Work ◽  
Soft Or ◽  
International Court Of Justice ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
International Court ◽  
State Actors ◽  
Legal Frameworks

This chapter surveys how international legal scholars have catalogued and sought to explain the legal impact of the UN even though its political and judicial organs have not been delegated the power to make law. It explains how the UN attempts to adhere to, but also challenges, the traditional sources of international law—treaties, custom, and general principles—contained in the Statute of the International Court of Justice. It enumerates how the turn to UN system organizations—amidst newly empowered non-state actors, increasing resort to ‘soft’ or ‘informal’ norms, and recourse to institutionalized processes—have led to distinct legal frameworks such as process or deliberative theories, interdisciplinary ‘law and’ approaches, feminist and ‘Third World’ critiques, and scholarly work that renews attention to or revises legal positivism.

scholarly journals Enacting Twailian Praxis in Nonacademic Habitats: Toward a Conceptual Framework

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 110 ◽  
pp. 20-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Obiora Chinedu Okafor
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
International Law ◽  
Third World ◽  
Civil Servants ◽  
Peasant Movements

The roles that Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) scholars could play in political and/or socio-economic struggles beyond the academy, and the relationships of these scholars to politicians, diplomats activists, civil servants, peasant movements, civil society, and other nonacademic actors are issues as important to TWAIL as they are understudied and underenacted. The three essays in this TWAIL Symposium take up this theme of praxis.

scholarly journals A questão desenvolvimentista na segunda metade do século XX: um olhar desde as TWAIL (Third World Approaches to International Law)

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Henrique Weil Afonso
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Third World

O objetivo do presente trabalho é analisar a tradição crítica do Direito Internacional no contexto da segunda metade do século XX no tocante aos desafios da inserção dos novos países à sociedade internacional de Estados. Para tanto, foi empreendido estudo qualitativo, amparado em bibliografia técnica e análise documental, nos contornos do recorte temporal assinalado. As Abordagens do Terceiro Mundo para o Direito Internacional (TWAIL, na sigla em inglês) consistem em movimento teórico de variadas influências, mas cujo propósito central é investigar as causas históricas, econômicas, políticas e culturais da perpetuação do subdesenvolvimento e da injustiça globais. São contempladas duas gerações de teóricos do movimento, a primeira compreendendo os desafios da emancipação política e desenvolvimento das décadas de 1960 e 1970, e a segunda, as dificuldades de proposição de alternativas institucionais e normativas favoráveis aos interesses do designado Terceiro Mundo no pós Guerra Fria. Constatou-se, após o exame das contribuições destas gerações, o que se denominou de armadilhas à emancipação dos países em desenvolvimento, que hoje precisam integrar a agenda do movimento.

scholarly journals Blind Spots in International Law

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-218
Author(s):  
MACHIKO KANETAKE
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
International Law ◽  
Implicit Bias ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Large Set ◽  
Legal Scholarship ◽  
Good People ◽  
Implicit Biases ◽  
Hidden Biases ◽  
Blind Spots

AbstractThis editorial aims to foster debate on the possible roles of implicit social cognition in international law. The editorial is in part inspired by a book entitled Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People, written by Banaji and Greenwald, researchers of social psychology. According to them, a large set of implicit biases reside in our minds, which may influence our behaviour towards ourselves and others. It is safe to argue that international judges, arbitrators, diplomats, domestic officials who apply international law, and international legal scholars are not immune from implicit bias. Within international legal scholarship, some relevant experiments have already been conducted in unveiling decision makers’ intuitive and automatic thinking. While implicit bias is hard to identify and remedy, this editorial encourages international legal practitioners and scholars to diversify their own experiences and engage in the imagination of counter-stereotypes.

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