SELECT COURSES AND SEMINARS
History and Theory of International Law Seminar
This seminar explores the intellectual foundations of contemporary international law. The aim is to embed thinking about international law in wider bodies of political and legal theory. This course is taught in some years by Professor Benedict Kingsbury, and other years by Professor Robert Howse.
In 2009-10, the seminar taught by Professor Howse consists of a close reading of classic and contemporary texts that explore the central questions concerning the relationship between power and right in international politics: the justification of war and the issue of "just war", the role of law in achieving and sustaining peace and stability, the morality of empire, the meaning or possibility of "global democracy" and "global justice". Classic writings by Thucydides, Grotius, Vattel, Rousseau and Kant; and twentieth century readings from works by Alexandre Kojeve, Carl Schmitt, Leo Strauss are considered. Finally, contemporary debates about justice and law in international relations, through a series of more recent writings by Rawls, Walzer, Pogge, Teitel, Koskenniemi, Sen, Kingsbury, Waldron and others are examined.
The seminar taught by Professor Kingsbury considers competing approaches to international order developed by Grotius, Pufendorf, Hobbes, Kant and their modern successors, including fundamental concepts of sovereignty, anarchy, society, rights and law in international relations; the approaches to imperialism and colonial expansion taken by Vitoria, Gentili, Locke, and in 19th century US continental and extra-continental expansion, and the interaction of international law with colonial and post-colonial projects; the vitality of alternative (particularly East Asian) models of international order and alternative histories of international law; the imagination and problems of international law as law, academic discipline, and practice; and what it means to be an international lawyer now.
