Understanding TWAIL: A Critical Approach to International Law
Mainstream approaches to international law do not provide the necessary point of view to expose the colonial and postcolonial origins of the discipline and to deconstruct the modern international legal regime based on “sovereign inequality.” Even looking at the structure of the United Nations Securi...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Istanbul University Press
2021-06-01
|
| Series: | Public and Private International Law Bulletin |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://cdn.istanbul.edu.tr/file/JTA6CLJ8T5/B379828EEA4149C3B3AD47F6640D3F49 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Summary: | Mainstream approaches to international law do not provide the necessary point of view to expose the colonial and postcolonial origins of the discipline and to deconstruct the modern international legal regime based on “sovereign inequality.” Even looking at the structure of the United Nations Security Council reveals the need for this deconstruction. According to TWAIL, international law is nothing more than a collection of principles and doctrines that have been shaped in Europe as a result of European history and experience, and it is a great paradox that the same international law claims to be universal. This is why international law will be considered “illegitimate” as long as it does not meet the expectations of the Third World. Despite the highly heterogeneous nature of the TWAIL literature, it is also possible to identify the main themes emphasized by TWAIL. As such, this study has three objectives. First, to explain what TWAIL is and the features thatdistinguish it from mainstream approaches, and second, to identify TWAIL’s main themes and central arguments in the heterogeneous literature in question. In this sense, the study focuses on TWAIL’s eight different schematic themes and conveys them according to the views of the leading scholars of the approach. Third, a recommendation is made about how to perceive TWAIL which contributes to the construction of an international law that may also be beneficial to the Third World. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 2667-4114 |