History and Theory of International Law
History and Theory of International Law, Professor Benedict Kingsbury
This course 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. We will consider 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.