1st Edition

International Law and Revolution

By Owen Taylor Copyright 2019
    200 Pages
    by Routledge

    200 Pages
    by Routledge

    This book explores the historical inter-relations between international law and revolution, with a focus on how international anti-capitalist struggle plays out through law. The book approaches the topic by analysing the meaning of revolution and what revolutionary activity might look like, before comparing this with legal activity, to assess the basic compatibility between the two. It then moves on to examine two prominent examples of revolutionary movements engaging with international law from the twentieth century; the early Soviet Union and the Third World movement in the nineteen sixties and seventies. The book proposes that the ‘form of law’, or its base logic, is rooted in capitalist social relations of private property and contract, and that therefore the law is a particularly inhospitable place to advance revolutionary breaks with established distributions of power or wealth. This does not mean that the law is irrelevant to revolutionaries, but that turning to legal means comes with tendencies towards conservative outcomes. In the light of this, the book considers the possibility of how, or whether, international law might contribute to the pursuit of a more egalitarian future.

    International Law and Revolution fills a significant gap in the field of international legal theory by offering a deep theoretical reflection on the meaning of the concept of revolution for the twenty-first century, and its link to the international legal system. It develops the commodity form theory of law as applied to international law, and explores the limits of law for progressive social struggle, informed by historical analysis. It will therefore appeal to students and scholars of public international law, legal history, human rights, international politics and political history.

     

    CONTENTS:

    Acknowledgment

    Introduction

    Foreground: Revolutionary Times?

    Critical Times; Critical Scholarship

    A Materialist Approach to International Law

    Revolutions of All Shapes and Sizes

    The Structure of the Book

    Why Law Anyway?

    Chapter 1: Revolution and Revolutionary Praxis

    I: Introduction

    I. Revolution in Existing Scholarship

    II. The Conceptual History of Revolution

    III: Marxist Revolution – Political and Social; Bourgeois and Proletarian

    IV: Revolutionary Agency

    V: Conclusion

    Chapter 2: International Law and International Legal Praxis

    I: Introduction

    II: The Ambiguous Promise of International Law

    III: The Politics of Law and Fundamental Legal Indeterminacy

    IV: Pashukanis and the Commodity Form Theory of Law

    V: The Brutal Heart of Law

    VI: Revolutionary Praxis in Law

    VII: Conclusion

    Chapter 3: The Soviet Relationship to International Law

    I: Introduction

    II: Background – Revolution, Foreign Policy and the Law

    III: The Soviet ‘Approach’ to International Law

    IV: The View From Without

    V: Common International Legal Practice?

    VI: Understanding the Soviet ‘Approach’

    VII: Revolutionary Legal Praxis and the Soviet example

    VIII: Conclusion

    Chapter 4: The Third World and the New International Economic Order

    I: Introduction

    II: Background

    III: The Third World relationship to International Law

    IV: Bandung; Non-Aligned Movement and the G77; UNCTAD

    V: OPEC: Commodities, commodity booms and Oil – the exception

    VI: Resolutions

    VII: Revolutionary Legal Praxis and the Third World – An Assessment *

    VIII: Conclusion *

    Conclusion *

    Counter-revolutionary times

    The importance of reclaiming revolution

    The possibility of revolutionary praxis as legal praxis

    Fundamental legal relations

    Soviet legal practice: between pragmatism and revolution

    Third World legal practice: between idealism and revolution

    The vulnerable heart of law: property and contract

    Bibliography

    index

    Biography

    Owen Taylor is an independent researcher, currently based in Marseille. He completed his doctorate in Law at SOAS, University of London.