The politics of international law

This chapter explores the techniques of Koskenniemi&s;s of rule indeterminacy, hegemonic positions and structural bias of institutions. Approaching international law through literary style demonstrates how the liberal project, with its notion of an objective rule of law, masks how &s;social conflict must still be solved by political means and [that legal rhetoric] must, for reasons internal to the ideal itself, rely on essentially contested – political – principles&s; in order to defend the outcomes to international law disputes. In the international law context, scholars have identified an image of language structure based on &s;a particular historically conditioned discourse&s; that translates or reproduces &s;some basic tenets of liberal political theory&s; to the international world. The structural properties of the language produce recurring irresolvable dichotomies that allow for multiple interpretations which on a structural level are indistinguishable from one other. The &s;deep structural&s; binary oppositions are detected in the many definitions of the concept of jurisdiction in international law.