PROVOCATIONS FOR A MATERIAL INTERNATIONAL LAW1 Dr. Jessie Hohmann Senior Lecturer in Law, Queen Mary University of London; ISRF Early Career Fellow 2017-18
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nternational law is generally defined as the set of rules which are agreed upon by sovereign states, and which bind them in their relations with each other. It binds ‘the state’, which often appears as a closed entity, with a unitary intention, will and authority that can be clearly located and known. Making this international law is often presented as the preserve of statesmen (rarely women) and a supporting cast of technocrats who work busily behind the scenes, dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s on overly complex and wordy treaties, while, front of house, world leaders shake hands under elaborate diplomatic protocols, smiling - or stern and strong as occasion dictates - for the cameras. It appears to ‘happen’ far away and high above the lives of ordinary individuals, to be remote, abstract, and untouchable. Yet it has long been clear that international law is deeply implicated in, and has striking effects on, the lives of ordinary individuals, as this famous cartoon of European leaders ‘carving up Africa’ at the 1885 Berlin Conference suggests.
European powers carve up Africa at the Berlin Conference of 1885. Source zz1y, Journal L’Illustration, (cc licence)
1. This piece comes out of my ISRF research on the Objects of International Law, and will form part of a future monograph on A Material International Law. 27
