Reading Group on Third World Approaches to International Law

What is the relationship of international law to the world beyond the West? This reading group will explore how scholars falling within the tradition of Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) have attempted to answer this question.



TWAIL is founded on the premise that the “Third World” is a political reality that unifies much of the world outside Western Europe and North America. Nations of the Third World remain politically and economically subordinate to the powers in these two regions, and this subordination dates at least as far back as the European colonial project. TWAIL locates international law in this colonial project and attempts to understand the ways in which this genealogy still defines international law as a system of Third World subordination. Some TWAIL scholars have attempted to distinguish TWAIL from other critical projects by insisting that it has political and transformative commitments aiming not only to deconstruct international law, but also to remake it in ways that disrupt hierarchies of power.



This course will cover some of TWAIL’s foundational texts to provide an overview of its tenets. We will examine how TWAIL scholars have challenged the traditional conception of sovereignty in modern international law, and use this as a lens through which to consider the value and viability of the larger project of a rules-based international order that encompasses all states. Additionally, we will read the recent work of scholars who address current challenges in international law in areas such as migration, the law of armed conflict or climate change, by analyzing them from a TWAIL perspective.

Course Materials

Students will be required on average to read two to three law review articles or book chapters per session.