In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Public International Law

03 Sep

[Jay Ramasubramanyam is a PhD candidate in the Department of Law and Legal Studies with a specialization in Political Economy, at Carleton University.] I concluded my first foray into virtual teaching amid the ongoing public health crisis and found myself confronted by a disturbing question: am I capable of recreating discussions about and resistance to Eurocentrism in a virtual teaching environment? Interactions with my students prior to...

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03 Sep

[Dr Brendan Ciarán Browne is an Assistant Professor Conflict Resolution at Trinity College Dublin.] Introduction Few ‘conflicts’ engender the widest possible scrutiny within public, political and academic discourse than Israel’s ongoing settler colonial mission in Palestine. The goal of many critical legal scholars is thus to unpack the ways in which international law is weaponised to subjugate the Palestinian people, providing opportunity for students to debate and interrogate international...

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02 Sep

[Seokwoo LEE is a Professor of International law at Inha University Law School.] As the COVID-19 pandemic made its way to Korea in January 2020, South Korean educational authorities scrambled to adjust to social distancing and other measures to prevent the spread of the virus, especially among the student population. With the school year beginning in March, and after postponing the start of the academic term, the...

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02 Sep

[Noha Aboueldahab is a Fellow at the Brookings Institution and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Georgetown University in Qatar.] In the fall of 2019, I taught public international law to upper-level undergraduate students in the International Politics program at Georgetown University’s satellite campus in Qatar (GU-Q). I will teach it again in the upcoming semester. However, this time, I will deliver it entirely online. GU-Q offers an American college curriculum...

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02 Sep

[Amritha V. Shenoy is an Assistant Professor at the Kathmandu School of Law.] As 1.37 billion students around the world are confined to their homes, schools and universities are exploring virtual teaching strategies. My own institution, Kathmandu School of Law, has opted for Zoom as the mode of delivery. While many of us initially thought that we would deliver the lectures we use for our...

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01 Sep

[Florence Shako is a Lecturer at Riara Law School, LLM (LSE), LLB (UoN), Advocate, MCIArb, CS, CPA.] Formal education was introduced in Kenya by Western missionaries, as an instrument for advancing the civilising mission. However, in the years of colonial rule, no facility for legal education was established. This is curious given that the period witnessed significant expansion of public as well as private institutions, and...

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01 Sep

[Pouria Askary (@AskaryPouria) is an Assistant Professor of International Law at Allameh Tabataba’i University and Sina Etezazian (@SinaEtezazian) is a Visiting Lecturer in Law at Allameh Tabataba’i University.] Eurocentrism played an important role in developing our understanding of the international legal regime in Iran. It also influenced our approach toward legal pedagogy. The first academic center in Iran to provide courses...

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31 Aug

[Babatunde Fagbayibo is a Professor of International Law, University of South Africa.] In 2017, I wrote an editorial criticising the decision of Third World Quarterly to publish Bruce Gilley’s offensive article on the need to bring colonialism back to Africa. Although the journal eventually withdrew the article due to widespread opposition, the point was made. As I noted in the piece, “Would Third World Quarterly (or...

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31 Aug

[Tony Anghie is a Professor of Law at  the University of Utah and National University of Singapore and the Head, Teaching and Researching International Law (TRILA), Centre for International Law, at the National University of Singapore.] Introduction I believe that questions of pedagogy and the teaching of law and critical theory must be considered in the context of the goals we seek to achieve as teachers. I teach my...

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31 Aug

Formalism in the teaching of international law is burning out. This is not surprising. Its application always seemed impractical, suffering from the theory’s glaring defects as well as unique flaws when administered to international law. Treaty interpretation and state practice, for example, the two most suitable facets for formalist analysis, proved deficient in producing the conclusive-qua-correct outcomes that formalists fetishize....

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28 Aug

The contributions in the symposium this past week have brought up multiple issues and perspectives, pointing to challenges in the quest for justice and accountability for the Rohingya, and the role of international law. Rather than go over what has been highlighted already, here are a few reflections, linked to the international legal developments and the wider context.  There is little...

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28 Aug

[Laetitia van den Assum is a diplomatic expert who has served as Netherlands ambassador on four continents. She was also a member of the Rakhine Advisory Commission, chaired by the late Kofi Annan.] Myanmar’s reluctance to embrace its rich ethnic, religious and cultural diversity remains the biggest stumbling block towards peace, stability and development.  It stands in the way of other major challenges, particularly high inequality and an...

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