Why we should see international law as a structure

Unpicking international law's ontology and agency

Bibliographic Data

ID4444248
AuthorsAdriana Sinclair (0000-0002-6853-0759, University of East Anglia, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume35
Issue2
Pages216-235
Publication date2021-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Relations (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0047-1178 • E-ISSN: 1741-2862
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0047117820916223
OpenAlexW3024916483
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited15

This article identifies how three dominant ideas of international law (as a process, an institution and a practice) see its agency, concluding that all three share a reluctance to see international law as doing anything more than enabling the operation of other actors, forces or structures. This article argues that we should see international law as a structure because it possesses both the surface structure of rules, principles, processes, personnel and material elements of the international legal system and a deep structure of values that sits deep within our subconscious. As Shklar's idea of legalism shows us, legalism plays a powerful role in shaping all our understandings of ourselves and the world that surrounds us. Seeing international law as a structure enables us to see how it locates actors within a social hierarchy and how it behaves in similar ways to recognised structures like capitalism and racism

Agency (philosophy) · Comparative law · International law · Law and economics · Legalism (Western philosophy) · Political science · Politics · Public international law · Social science · Sociology · Subconscious · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics · Human Rights and Development · International Law and Human Rights · Law

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