Ulf Johansson Dahre
Associate Professor | Senior Lecturer
Games States Play: Towards an anthropology of international law
Author
Summary, in English
Games States Play: Towards an Anthropology of International Law
Keywords: international legal anthropology, deconstruction, speech acts, liberalism, law and politics, international law and national interest.
Abstract
Games States Play is an attempt to assess the political use by states of contemporary international law. The aim is to move towards an anthropological informed understanding of how international law works and why its significance in world politics and conflicts is declining, ignored and more subject to national political interests than being a an International Rule of Law. The article explores the political and theoretical domains of international legal structures, and deconstruct the boundaries between political and ideological frameworks and its influences on international law and state action. It is an attempt to show that the ideal of a world order based on the rule of law cannot sustain its proposition, as social and political conflicts must, and still are, solved by political means. Even though there is a legal rhetoric among international lawyers, that rhetoric must most of the time rely on contested political principles to be able to solve conflicts. Analyzing international law from an anthropological perspective is in line with a growing interest since several years, not only among lawyers for anthropological theory, but also among anthropologists for international legal theory and practice, particularly in the fields of human rights and conflict reconciliation efforts.
Keywords: international legal anthropology, deconstruction, speech acts, liberalism, law and politics, international law and national interest.
Abstract
Games States Play is an attempt to assess the political use by states of contemporary international law. The aim is to move towards an anthropological informed understanding of how international law works and why its significance in world politics and conflicts is declining, ignored and more subject to national political interests than being a an International Rule of Law. The article explores the political and theoretical domains of international legal structures, and deconstruct the boundaries between political and ideological frameworks and its influences on international law and state action. It is an attempt to show that the ideal of a world order based on the rule of law cannot sustain its proposition, as social and political conflicts must, and still are, solved by political means. Even though there is a legal rhetoric among international lawyers, that rhetoric must most of the time rely on contested political principles to be able to solve conflicts. Analyzing international law from an anthropological perspective is in line with a growing interest since several years, not only among lawyers for anthropological theory, but also among anthropologists for international legal theory and practice, particularly in the fields of human rights and conflict reconciliation efforts.
Department/s
- Social Anthropology
Publishing year
2005
Language
English
Document type
Conference paper
Topic
- Social Anthropology
Keywords
- social anthropology
- deconstruction
- international law
- law and politics
- legal anthropology
Conference name
Anthropology of Law Workshop
Conference date
2005-04-20
Status
Unpublished