The Notion of Progress in International Law Discourse

by Thomas Skouteris

Overview

Progress is a familiar slogan in international law, commonly used to accompany claims for improvement or change. At the same time, the notion of progress is rarely explored as such in the literature. The book begins to address this gap by examining the function of the notion of progress in international law rhetoric and writing.

By looking at three concrete case studies taken from ‘everyday’ international law, the book concentrates on explaining ‘what is it’ that makes a specific international law event synonymous with progress. The book engages questions of narrativity, objectivity, and truth in some of international law’s founding progress narratives. The book is valuable reading for international law academics and practitioners alike, especially for those interested in the history and theory of international law.

Dr. Thomas Skouteris is currently Associate Professor and Director of the Ibrahim Shihata Memorial LLM Program in International and Comparative Law at The American University in Cairo as well as Secretary General of the European Society of International Law. Before AUC, Skouteris taught at the Faculty of Law of Leiden University and other universities as Visiting Professor. He is General Editor of the Leiden Journal of International Law and he teaches and publishes in public international law, legal history and theory, international dispute settlement, and international criminal law.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789067042994
Publisher:	T.M.C. Asser Press
Publication date:	12/31/2009
Edition description:	1st Edition.
Pages:	276
Product dimensions:	0.00(w) x 0.00(h) x 0.03(d)

About the Author

Thomas Skouteris is Lecturer and Academic Coordinator of the LL.M. Program in Public International Law at Leiden University.

Table of Contents

Preface Thomas Skouteris V

List of Abbreviations XIII

Chapter 1 Introduction - The Notion of Progress in International Law Discourse 1

1.1 Progress and International Law Debates 1

1.2 The Problem: Progress as a Notion that 'Speaks Itself' 15

1.3 Critique and Theses: Progress as the Product of Narratives 22

1.4 Approach, Method, Outline 30

1.4.1 Approach 30

1.4.2 Method 31

1.4.3 Outline 35

Chapter 2 International Law as Progress - Stelios Seferiades and Interwar International Law 39

2.1 Introduction 39

2.2 The Narrative of Absolutism v. Democracy 45

2.3 The Function of the Vocabulary of Progress 58

2.4 A Vocabulary Situated 64

2.5 Bourgeois Modernization and International Law 73

2.6 How to Explain Away Sovereign (In)Equality 77

2.7 The International Lawyer as Organic Intellectual 86

2.8 Conclusions 91

Chapter 3 Progress within International Law - The Doctrine of the Sources as Progress 93

3.1 Introduction 93

3.2 Interwar Discourse on the Sources of International Law and the Quest for Reconstruction 98

3.3 Tropes of Reconstruction 103

3.4 Article 38 as Progress 121

3.5 The Vocabulary of Progress of the Sources 126

3.6 Digression: Sources in Contemporary Textbooks 138

3.7 An (Un)Stable Vocabulary 150

3.8 Conclusion 155

Chapter 4 International Law as Progress/Progress within International Law - The New Tribunalism 159

4.1 Introduction 159

4.2 The New Tribunalism 164

4.2.1 Tribunals and pre-1980s international law 164

4.2.2 Facts and trends of proliferation 170

4.2.3 The new form of engagement 173

4.3 Two Vocabularies of Progress 180

4.3.1 The 'lawyer-as-architect' 180

4.3.2 The 'lawyer-as-social-engineer' 197

4.4 (Un)Stable Vocabularies 206

4.4.1 Necessity 206

4.4.2 Unity 209

4.4.3 Progress 211

4.5 Conclusion 215

Chapter 5 In Closing 217

5.1 Findings 217

5.2 Progress as the Product of Narratives 219

5.3 Progress Narratives as Politics 222

5.4 Discourse Analysis as Action 227

Bibliography 231

Index 259

Editorial Reviews

From the reviews:

“The book must be enthusiastically welcomed for dealing with a difficult and … unexplored topic. It is well-written and clearly divided into five chapters. … The Notion of Progress deals with an aspect so essential to the international lawyer’s self-understanding that it must be studied deeply, not only to disclose hidden priorities supported by lawyers, but to stimulate the development of at least two research agendas in the international legal discipline … .” (George Rodrigo Bandeira Galindo, Melbourne Journal of International Law, Vol. 11 (2), 2011)

From the Publisher