The Aims and Methods of Postcolonial International Law

Erscheinungsjahr 2024
ISBN: 978-90-04-69615-0
Verlag: Brill Academic Publishers

Buch, Englisch, Band 57

Reihe: The Pocket Books of The Hague Academy of International Law / Les livres de poche de l'Académie de droit international de La Haye

Criticism of colonial justifications has been familiar since the age of Sepúlveda and Las Casas. Yet today it is said that international law is, and always was, an instrument of colonialism. It is true that the ius gentium and the Law of Nations failed to prevent colonialism and were used in fact to justify colonialism. Still, such failures which occurred over the successive periods of European colonization of non-European peoples did not implicate the whole of international law thought. That is just a modern exaggeration, but rather than repair the international law that we have, for example in our discussions about colonial reparation, some now wish us to reject international law altogether. In seeking to cast present-day criticisms in a proper light, these lectures at the Hague Academy had discussed the more notable literature, including in judgments and arbitral awards, from the time of the classic works that are connected to the history of the subject to the present day. Now presented in pocketbook form the objective is the same; which is to explain the aims and methods of post-colonial criticism, and to reject the view that it is too late for international law.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Lim, Chin Leng

Fachgebiete

• Rechtswissenschaften Internationales Recht und Europarecht Internationales Recht

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Chapter I. The question of universality

A. Introduction

B. Treaty and territorial principles were inadequate

C. Sovereignty and civilisation

D. Law-giver to colonial adventurers

E. The savage and the wild and barbarous

F. Illegitimate conquest

G. Modern international law

H. The English commentators

Chapter II. How the aims and methods have evolved

A. The Berlin Conference (1884-1885)

B. Rejecting international law’s promise

C. The cultural thesis

D. Did they go far enough?

E. Revolutionary

F. Democrat

G. Optimist

H. Rejectionism today

I. The quest for colonial redress

Chapter III. Rights of the post-colonial State

A. To prevent injustice recurring

B. Tariffs and reprisals

C. Commerce

D. From Berlin to Bretton Woods

E. Rewriting trade rules

F. Foreign ownership

G. Occupation, protectorates and the penetration of civilisation

H. Legislative agenda for colonial redress

Chapter IV. Arbitration’s gilded age

A. Foreign commercial interests

B. An open delocalised system and internationalized contracts

C. Libya’s challenge

D. Jumping the species barrier

E. Faith in treaties

F. Arbitrators

G. Liberalism, autonomy, delocalisation

Chapter V. Aims and methods of postcolonial international law

A. Universal legal order

B. Refashioning doctrine

C. The necessity of international law

D. Puccini’s Third World critics

E. Revolutionary views

F. Quarrel over methods

G. The return of naturalism, the significance of decolonisation and a controversy in Paris

H. Reparations

I. Temporal and intertemporal problems

J. The aims and methods of postcolonial international law

Case law and arbitral awards

Legal, official and institutional materials

Bibliography

About the Author

Über Autor(innen)

Chin Leng Lim is an associé of the Institut de droit international, arbitrator, and a practising barrister called to the bars of England and Wales and of Singapore. He is currently the Choh Ming-Li Professor of Law at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, visiting professor at King’s College London, honorary senior fellow of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, and an editorial board member of the International and Comparative Law Quarterly.