For the Love of Structure

Abstract

This short essay engages with an article by Jean d’Aspremont (2023 IOLR), who through a phenomenological lens reflects on the reasons why international lawyers are drawn to international organizations -- a condition summarized as love. I argue that to the nine ‘drivers’ for this love identified by d’Aspremont, at least one should be added: international organizations offer structure. ‘Structure(dness)’ has strong affective power, due to a combination of images evoked by the concept particularly in an international law context. I address four: structure is aesthetically attractive; structure creates clarity and transparency; structure creates (positive) constraints; structure brings order to chaos. Of course these images, which are the groundwork for classic institutional attributes such as neutrality, fairness and a-politicalness, in our time can appear as naive projections. Still, even if “the progress narrative that characterized the turn to IOs” has been debunked, it is a source of inspiration at the experiential plane. And if we want to go by the insight that international organizations ultimately exist only through our gaze, this better be the gaze of a loving observer.

Keywords: international organizations, international law, structure, aesthetic, order, neutrality, institutionalization, transparency, phenomenology

JEL Classification: K33