TWAIL | Critical Legal Teaching

Coloniality of international law

Public international law, as the current global regime regulating relations between states, is primarily the product of a European law of nations (Volkerenrecht) that has been universalised at specific historical moments. Its fundamental principles and norms find their roots in the European project of nation building, such as the central concept of state sovereignty. A critical method to understanding international law is to historisise the current regime through a genealogy of its origins. A...

Justice

Justice is a fundamental principle of law and political theory, often understood as underpinning the fair distribution of rights, responsibilities, and resources. In classical legal thought, justice remains mainly grounded in a liberal-legalist framework, which conceptualises it through normative ideas such as fairness, equality before the law, and the impartial application of rules (Rawls 1971, 2001). This perspective equates justice mainly with individual responsibility, formal legal...