International Law''s Objects

International law's rich existence in the world can be illuminated by its objects. International law is often developed, conveyed and authorized through its objects and/or their representation. From the symbolic (the regalia of the head of state and the symbols of sovereignty), to the mundane (a can of dolphin-safe tuna certified as complying with international trade standards), international legal authority can be found in the objects around us. Similarly, the practice of international law often relies on material objects or their image, both as evidence (satellite images, bones of the victims of mass atrocities) and to found authority (for instance, maps and charts).

This volume considers these questions; firstly what might the study of international law through objects reveal? What might objects, rather than texts, tell us about sources, recognition of states, construction of territory, law of the sea, or international human rights law? Secondly, what might this scholarly undertaking reveal about the objects - as aims or projects - of international law? How do objects reveal, or perhaps mask, these aims, and what does this tell us about the reasons some (physical or material) objects are foregrounded, and others hidden or ignored. Thirdly what objects, icons and symbols preoccupy the profession and academy? The personal selection of these objects by leading and emerging scholars worldwide, will illuminate the contemporary and historical fascinations of international lawyers. As a result, the volume will be an important artefact (itself an object) in its own right, capturing the mood of international law in a given moment and providing opportunity for reflection on these preoccupations. By considering international law in the context of its material culture the authors offer a new theoretical perspective on the subject.

List of contents

• Introduction


• Thinking International Law through Objects


• 1: Dan Joyce: International Law's Cabinet of Curiosities


• 2: Jessie Hohmann: The Lives of Objects


• 3: Fleur Johns: Things We Can Make and Do with International Law


• 4: Wouter Werner: Saying and Showing


• 5: Isobel Roele: The Objects of Study


• Objects of International Law


• 1: Nicole De Silva: African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights


• 2: Therese Murphy: AIDS Virus


• 3: Ioannis Kalpouzos: Armed Drone


• 4: Lucas Lixinski: Axum Stele


• 5: Filippo Fontanelli and Giuseppe Bianco: Barcelona Traction Share


• 6: Kimberley Trapp: Boots (on the Ground)


• 7: Francois Finck: Border Check Point, the Moldovan Republic of Transnistria


• 8: Jacqueline Mowbray: Breton Road Signs


• 9: Anne-Charlotte Martineau: Chicotte


• 10: Stephen Humphreys: Data: the Given


• 11: Immi Tallgren: Dechiqueteuse (Papershredder)


• 12: James Parker: Gavel


• 13: Helmut Aust: 'Good Urban Citizen'


• 14: Allesandra Arcuri: Glyphosate


• 15: Kate Miles: Insulae Moluccae: A Dutch East India Company Map


• 16: Ziv Bohrer: Jolly Roger


• 17: Surabhi Ranganathan: Manganese Nodules


• 18: Alex Mills: Mosul Four and Iran Six


• 19: Gerry Simpson: NM 68226 84912; TQ 30052 80597


• 20: Julia Dehm: One Tonne of Carbon Dioxide Equivalent (1tCO2e)


• 21: Jessie Hohmann: Opium


• 22: Jean D'Aspremont and Eric De Brabandere: Paintings of International Law's Textbooks


• 23: Sarah Dehm: Passport


• 24: Thomas MacManus: Peace Sign, La Comunidad de Paz de San Jose© de Apartado³


• 25: Sophie Rigney: Postcard from the ICTY


• 26: Andrew Lang: Purse Seine Net


• 27: Geoff Gordon: Railway Clocks


• 28: Alison Kesby: Refugee Chains


• 29: Rosemary Rayfuse: Russian Flag at the North Pole


• 30: Christine Schwobel-Patel and Wouter Werner: Screen


• 31: Lolita Buckner-Inniss: Ships' Ballast


• 32: Doug Guilfoyle: Somali Pirate Skiff


• 33: Tanja Aalberts: Sovereign Mark of the Roi Né-Do'ucoula, King of Boma


• 34: Daniel Litwin: Stained Glass Windows, the Great Hall of Justice of the Peace Palace


• 35: Michael Fakhri: Sugar


• 36: Ruth Buchanan and Jeff Hewitt: Treaty Canoe


• 37: Leslie-Anne Duvic-Paoli: Trees


• 38: Charlie Peevers: USAID Rice - Haiti


• 39: Jeffrey Smith: Western Sahara Boundary


• 40: Malgosia Fitzmaurice: Whale

About the author

Dr. Hohmann is a lecturer in law at Queen Mary, University of London. She researches in the areas of human rights and international law, with particular interests in how human rights push at the normative limits of international law. She has written a book on The Right to Housing: Law, Concepts, Possibilities (Hart, 2013, paperback 2014) which was shortlisted for the SLS prize. She also researches on indigenous rights. Her publications have considered the role of icons in human rights struggles, and how visions of social transformation connect with legal regulations and rights.

Dr. Joyce is a lecturer in law at UNSW Australia. He researches in the areas of international law and media law. His publications have considered the role of representation and of the media in shaping international law, as well as focusing on the evidentiary and historical aspects of international legal processes and institutions. At UNSW Law he lectures in the compulsory subject Law in a Global Context and offers elective subjects in media law and media and human rights. He is currently acting convenor for the international law stream within the Faculty of Law and co-ordinator for the postgraduate workshop of the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law.

Summary

This edited collection expands our understanding of the theoretical and critical scope of international law by considering the discipline through the lens of objects. The relevance of each object for the development, impact, status, and authority of international law is examined, shedding new light on the field and providing a great teaching tool.

Additional text

This is certainly the most interesting and innovative international law book to have come out in recent years - and might just as well prove to be the most important one. ... because of its novel method of presentation and the accessible language used, this volume is capable of expanding the readership of international law beyond its relatively narrow academic confines.

Report

By drawing from a wide array of sources, both methodologically and substantively, this edited volume invites the reader to engage with materiality in, through and as international law. It offers a groundbreaking collection of artefacts, which (in their own ways) interrogate the complex relationship between the normative and the material, the discursive and the tangible. By weaving their analysis of the objects with vivid images and pictures, the contributors provide snapshots of diverging 'ways of seeing' international law in theory and in practice. This 'visualisation of international law' quickly turns readers into spectators and calls for an inquiry into the politics of the gaze. Hence, the book is nothing less than an invitation to self-reflexivity in the exercise of seeing - or of avoiding seeing - the performances of international law. Daniel R Quiroga-Villamarín, Melbourne Journal of International Law

Product details

• Authors: Jessie (Lecturer in Law Hohmann
• Assisted by: Jessie Hohmann (Editor), Jessie (Lecturer in Law Hohmann (Editor), Hohmann Jessie (Editor), Daniel Joyce (Editor), Daniel (Lecturer in Law Joyce (Editor), Joyce Daniel (Editor)
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 26.12.2018
• EAN: 9780198798217
• ISBN: 978-0-19-879821-7
• No. of pages: 586
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Law > International law, foreign law; LAW / International, LAW / Jurisprudence, Jurisprudence & Philosophy Of Law, Methods, theory and philosophy of law, Treaties & Other Sources Of International Law, Public international law: treaties and other sources