Writing Resistance into International Law

Abstract

This essay considers the problem of theorizing resistance within international law through a close reading of two recent contributions to the TWAIL literature. It is concerned less with their critiques of contemporary developments, than with how these scholars map the possible spaces for resistance of third world states and peoples to international legal institutions and discourses. Do they argue that third world resistance has the potential to transform international law, and move us in the direction of a more just international order? If so, how is that process of change envisioned? While the answers to these questions are, not surprisingly, somewhat elusive; what is illuminated in the attempt is the productively contradictory nature of the TWAIL project itself.

Keywords: TWAIL, resistance, legal pluralism, revolution, multitude, international legal theory