Episode 15: Başak Çalı on Authority, Interpretivism, and Human Rights

Professor Hilary Charlesworth, Harrison Moore Professor of Law and a Melbourne Laureate Professor at Melbourne Law School and judge at the International Court of Justice joins us to talk about feminism in international law and the textuality/visuality divide. Publications mentioned in the episode: Charlesworth, Hilary, Christine Chinkin, and Shelley Wright. 'Feminist Approaches to International Law' AJIL 85(4) (1991) 613-645. Charlesworth, Hilary, Christine Chinkin. The Boundaries of International Law. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2022. Charlesworth, Hilary. 'The Art of International Law' Proceedings of the ASIL Annual Meeting, vol. 116 (2022) 7-24. Engle Merry, Sally. Human Rights and Gender Violence: Translating International Law into Local Justice. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006.

Dr Emily Jones joins us to talk about posthuman feminism in international law. Publications mentioned in the episode: Briadotti, Rose. The Posthuman (Polity, 2013). Charlesworth, Hilary, Christine Chinkin and Shelley Wright. ‘Feminist Approaches to International Law’. American Journal of International Law, Vol. 85(4) (1991): 613–45. Haraway, Donna. ‘A Cyborg Manifesto’, in David Bell and Barbara M. Kennedy (eds.), The Cybercultures Reader (Routledge, 2001): 291–324. Jones, Emily. Feminist Theory and International Law: Posthuman Perspectives (Routledge, 2023). Kulamadayil, Lyz. ‘Ableism in the College of International Lawyers: On Disabling Differences in the Professional Field’. Leiden Journal of International Law (2023).

Dr Alex Green (University of York) joins us to talk about natural law and international law, and statehood. Publications mentioned in the episode: Grotius, Hugo. De Jure Belli ac Pacis, 1652. Dworkin, Ronald. ''Natural' Law Revisited'. Florida Law Review 34 (1982) 165-188. Lauterpacht, Hersch. 'The Grotian Tradition in International Law' BYIL 23 (I) (1946) 1-53. Green, Alex. 'The Precarious Rationality of International Law: Critiquing the International Rule of Recognition' German Law Journal 22(8) (2021) 1613-1634. Green, Alex. 'The Creation of States as a Cardinal Point: James Crawford's Contribution to International Legal Scholarship' AYBIL 40 (1) (2023) 67-88. Waldron, Jeremy. Law and Disagreement. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999. Garnder, John. 'Legal Positivism: 5½ Myths' American Journal of Jurisprudence 46(1) (2001) 199-227. Waldron, Jeremy. 'The Concept and the Rule of Law' Georgia Law Review 43(1) (2008) 1-61. Green, Alex. Statehood as Political Community: International Law and the Emergence of New States, CUP (forthcoming). Stewart, Melissa. 'The Cascading Consequences of Sinking States' Stanford Journal of International Law (forthcoming).

Dr Tamsin Phillipa Paige (Deakin Law School) joins us to talk about sociology of international law, queer theory, and French pâtisserie. Publications mentioned in the episode: Paige, Tamsin. “Piracy and universal jurisdiction.” Macquarie Law Journal, 12 (2013): 131–154.  Guilfoyle, Douglas, Tamsin Paige, Rob Mclaughlin. “The Final Frontier of Cyberspace: The Seabed Beyond National Jurisdiction and the Protection of Submarine Cables.” International and Comparative Law Quarterly, 71 (2022): 657-696. Paige, Tamsin. “Petulant and Contrary: Approaches by the Permanent Five Members of the UN Security Council to the Concept of 'threat to the Peace' Under Article 39 of the UN Charter”. Deakin University, January 1, 2019. North, Claire. 84K.

Our first bonus episode, just in time for the holiday season! Publications referred to in the episode: Álvarez, Alejandro. 'Latin America and International Law'. The American Journal of International Law 3, no. 2 (1909): 269–353. Roberts, Anthea. Is International Law International? New York: Oxford University Press, 2017. Calvo, Carlos and Alcorta, Amancio. 'Polémica Calvo-Alcorta'. Nueva Revista de Buenos Aires 3, vol. 8 (1883): 629-658. Bello, Andrés. Principios de derecho internacional. Valparaiso: La Patria, 1864. Chehtman, Alejandro. The Philosophical Foundations of Extraterritorial Punishment. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010

Professor Alejandro Chehtman (Universidad Torcuato Di Tella) joins us to talk about revisionist just war theory, non-international armed conflicts, and crimes against humanity. Publications referred to in the episode: Greene, Joshua. Moral Tribes. London: Atlantic Books, 2015. van Dijk, Boyd. Preparing for War. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022. Sands, Philippe. East West Street. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2016. Haque, Adil Ahmad. Law and Morality at War. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017. Scheipers, Sibylle, Unlawful Combatants: A Genealogy of the Irregular Fighter. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015. Morrow, James D. Order within Anarchy: The Laws of War as an International Institution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014. Schweblin, Samantha. Seven Empty Houses. London: Oneworld Publications, 2022. You can read more on Graciela Daleo's story here.

Professor Martti Koskenniemi (University of Helsinki) joins us to discuss philosophy and history of international law, international legal scholarship, and the Helsinki school. Publications referred to in the episode: Koskenniemi, Martti. From Apology to Utopia: The Structure of International Legal Argument. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Koskenniemi, Martti. The Gentle Civilizer of Nations: The Rise and Fall of International Law 1870–1960. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Koskenniemi, Martti. To the Uttermost Parts of the Earth: Legal Imagination and International Power 1300–1870. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021. Powers, Richard. The Overstory. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2018.

Professor Başak Çalı (Hertie School) joins us to talk about the authority of international law, Ronald Dworkin's interpretivism, and human rights. Publications referred to in the episode: Çalı, Başak. The Authority of International Law: Obedience, Respect, and Rebuttal. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015. Çalı, Başak. ‘On Interpretivism and International Law’, European Journal of International Law 20, No. 3 (2009): 805–822. Dworkin, Ronald. ‘A New Philosophy for International Law’. Philosophy & Public Affairs 41, no. 1 (2013): 2–30 (posthumous). Gorobets, Kostiantyn. ‘Solidarity as a Practical Reason: Grounding the Authority of International Law’. Netherlands International Law Review 69, no. 1 (2022): 3–27. If you wish to help Ukraine to stand up against the Russian aggression, here are some trusted charities that you can donate to: Come Back Alive – the biggest military-oriented charity foundation that helps the Ukrainian army with almost anything; Prytula Foundation – another large charity that works in a close association with the military and the Ministry of Defence; United24 – a governmental fundraiser with different funds for defining and defence, medical aid, and rebuilding of Ukraine.

Joseph Raz was one of the most influential legal and political  philosophers who ever lived, and his passing in May 2022 marked the end  of an epoch. The breadth and depth of his philosophical legacy is  unmatched, and yet, unlike many influential legal philosophers (such as  HLA Hart or Hans Kelsen), Raz left very few writings that deal with  jurisprudential questions of international law. Why is that? And how can  we draw on Raz’s ideas about human rights, the concept of a legal  system, authority, normativity, and so on, to enrich the philosophy of  international law? Speakers Samantha Besson, Collège de France Başak Çalı, Hertie School Başak Etkin (moderator), Université Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas Kostia Gorobets, University of Groningen Adil Haque (moderator), Rutgers University Miodrag Jovanović, University of Belgrade This episode was recorded during the event co-organized with ASIL’s International Legal Theory Interest Group.

Professor Jean d'Aspremont (University of Manchester and Sciences Po Paris) joins us to discuss his overall scholarship and his latest book After Meaning.  Publications referred to in the episode: Jean d’Aspremont, Formalism and the Sources of International Law: A Theory of the Ascertainment of Legal Rules (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011). Jean d’Aspremont, Epistemic Forces in International Law (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2015). Jean d’Aspremont, International Law as a Belief System (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017). Jean d’Aspremont, The Discourse on Customary International Law (New York: Oxford University Press, 2021). Jean d’Aspremont, After Meaning: The Sovereignty of Forms in International Law (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2021). Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1981). Jacques Derrida, The Beast and the Sovereign (Chicago: Univerity of Chicago Press, 2009). George Steiner, Errata: An Examined Life (New Havean: Yale University Press, 1999). Jacques Derrida, Le monolinguisme de l'autre (Paris: Galilée, 1996).