No future without history: The future of international law/ Sundhya Pahuja

The invitation to reflect upon the question ‘Toward a different IR?’ challenges those of us engaging from a legal background to ask what a different international law might look like. This necessarily involves taking stock of the historical foundations of our discipline and acknowledging the ways in which these foundations continue to shape its present form. This entails provincialising international law and approaching it as a site of struggle, rather than as a settled and neutral framework. By doing so, I argue, we can begin to envision a future for international law that is not merely an extension of its imperial past, but a departure from it. This reimagining of international law requires us to practice the discipline differently, to teach it differently, and to think about it differently. Only by doing so can we hope to create a future for international law that is more just, and maybe slightly less imperial. When we think about the future of our discipline—whether International Law or International Relations, let us remember that the future does not simply ‘arrive’ or unfold on its own. It is something that we, as international jurists, diplomats and scholars actively shape every day—and every tomorrow—through our practices, our teachings, and our commitments.

INTERNATIONAL LAW, CRISIS, TWAIL