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Matt Craven

SOAS University of London, School of Law, Faculty Member

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Papers by Matt Craven

The tyranny of strangers: transformative occupations old and new

London Review of International Law, 2021

In the aftermath of the US led invasion of Iraq in 2003, considerable attention was given to the ... more In the aftermath of the US led invasion of Iraq in 2003, considerable attention was given to the apparent emergence of a new type of belligerent occupation—the ‘transformative occupation’ which apparently challenged the traditional assumptions of the law of occupation. The suggestion here is that, as an examination of the British occupation of Mesopotamia between 1914-1924 reveals, the ‘transformative occupation’ is by no means a new institution, but is one that may be associated with a tradition of thought and practice in which the institution of belligerent occupationwas made congruent with the operational rationalities of colonial rule by re-imagining it as a form of sacred trust. The legacy of that history, it is contended, is critical for understanding the role of occupation law today.

OUP accepted manuscript

European Journal Of International Law, 2019

In this article, I seek to develop the argument that the law of outer space, as it was to be deve... more In this article, I seek to develop the argument that the law of outer space, as it was to be developed during the 1960s and 1970s, configured outer space as a ‘commons’ in order to displace two prevailing ‘dystopic’ socio-technical imaginaries that were to be associated with the Cold War. One of these was that outer space might become a place of warfare – and, more specifically, a warfare of annihilatory proportions between the two main protagonists of the Cold War; the other, that it might be the object of ‘primitive accumulation’. Drawing upon the work of Herbert Marcuse, I argue that, whilst the nascent code of outer space visibly sought to repress both of these possibilities, it did so by bringing into play a particular ‘technological rationality’, in which each of these aversions were to reappear as sustaining configurations – as what might be called the rational irrationalities of a Cold War commons.

The time of revolution

In focusing upon the pervasive theme of temporality that marks RP Anand’s seminal New States and ... more In focusing upon the pervasive theme of temporality that marks RP Anand’s seminal New States and International Law (1972) it is argued that one of his central pre-occupations was a concern for what it meant for the peoples of the Third World to live contemporaneously with those in the North. Noting the significance of a universal temporal calculus (clock time) for processes of both nation-building and global capitalism it is suggested that the temporal disjunctions that appeared to structure Anand’s account of ‘contemporary’ international law was to foreground the limits of both. For just as each depended upon putting into operation a temporal technology – engendering a ‘fictional presentness’ by the measuring of life against the clock – so also did that technology both reveal the asymmetrical conditions of life in the world, and the scale of the challenge placed before the world by the utopia of ‘presentness’

Colonialism and Domination

Oxford Handbooks Online, 2012

colonialism and domination  historic formation of notions of war, sovereignty and territory an... more colonialism and domination  historic formation of notions of war, sovereignty and territory and not notice the role they assumed in the violent expansion of European empires. At certain points of time, of course, the relationship between the development of nascent legal doctrine and the practice of colonial rule has been entirely transparent. Just as Vitoria's famous lectures from 1532-De Indis Noviter Inventis and De Jure Bellis Hispanorum in Barbaros 3-addressed themselves to the titles the Spanish put forward in order to justify their domination in the New World, so also, some 360 years later, Westlake, Martitz, Hornung, and other members of the newly-formed Institut de Droit International were to debate the terms under which territory in Africa might be brought under colonial rule. 4 On other occasions, and far more frequently, colonialism has remained a signifi cant background theme, providing the setting for doctrinal debates over freedom of the high seas, the use of force, title to territory, recognition, and statehood. Dealing with its legacy, of course, was also a central preoccupation in the 20th century both informing institutional initiatives (mandates and trusteeships) and emergent doctrine such as that relating to self-determination, sovereignty over natural resources, human rights, the law of armed confl ict, state succession, and the boundary delimitation (uti possidetis iuris). There is, it might be suggested, scarcely a single area of international law that has not, in some manner or other, been informed by this history. Yet even if there is broad concurrence in the view that the history of international law is intimately related to the history of colonial rule, there is, as I have already suggested, considerably less agreement over 'how' one may plausibly articulate, or account for, that relationship. For some, the relationship is almost an incidental one-the expansion of European empires and the development of international law being the product of an intra-European rivalry whose centre of gravity remained fi rmly European. 5 For others, the relationship is taken to be far more central, but here again the contrasts are marked. For Tony Anghie, for example, European international law not only provided a means of legitimizing imperialism, but was also profoundly shaped by that encounter, encoding within its disciplinary structures (especially sovereignty) the discriminatory features of cultural difference. 6 For China Mieville, by contrast, colonization was to be understood not so much in terms of its content, but in terms of the imperialism of its form: Colonialism is in the very form, the structure of international law itself, predicated on global trade between inherently unequal polities, with unequal coercive violence implied in the very commodity form. This unequal coercion is what forces particular content into the legal form. 7

The preoccupations of occupation: Aeyal Gross and The Writing on the Wall

London Review of International Law, 2018

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a ubiquitous herpesvirus for which there is no vaccine or cure. T... more Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a ubiquitous herpesvirus for which there is no vaccine or cure. This viral infection, once acquired, is lifelong , residing latently in hematopoietic cells. However, latently infected individuals with weakened immune systems often undergo HCMV reactivation, which can cause serious complications in immunosuppressed and immunocompromised patients. Current anti-viral therapies target late stages of viral replication, and are often met with therapeutic resistance, necessitating the development of novel therapeutics. In this current study, we identified a naturally-occurring flavonoid compound, deguelin, which inhibits HCMV lytic replication. Our findings reveal that nanomolar concentrations of deguelin significantly suppress the production of the infectious virus. Further, we show that deguelin inhibits the lytic cycle during the phase of the replication cycle consistent with early (E) gene and protein expression. Importantly, our data reveal that deguelin inhibits replication of a ganciclovir-resistant strain of HCMV. Together, our findings identify a novel, naturally occurring compound that may prove useful in the treatment of HCMV replication.

Between law and history: the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 and the logic of free trade

London Review of International Law

The Berlin West Africa Conference of 1884-1885 has assumed a powerful symbolic presence in intern... more The Berlin West Africa Conference of 1884-1885 has assumed a powerful symbolic presence in international legal accounts of the 19th century, but for historians of the era its importance has often been doubted. This article seeks to re-interpret the place of the Berlin General Act in late 19th-century history, suggesting that the divergence of views has arisen largely as a consequence of an inattentiveness to the place of systemic logics in legal regimes of this kind.

The Invention of a Tradition: Westlake, The Berlin Conference and the Historicisation of International Law

What Happened to Unequal Treaties? The Continuities of Informal Empire

Nordic Journal of International Law, 2005

The barbarians are like beasts and not to be ruled on the same principles as Chinese. Were one to... more The barbarians are like beasts and not to be ruled on the same principles as Chinese. Were one to attempt to control them by the great maxims of reason it would tend to nothing but the greatest confusion. The ancient sovereigns well understood this and accordingly ruled barbarians by misrule. .. to rule barbarians by misrule was the true and best way of ruling them." [Confucian maxim attributed to Su Tung-po, cited in H. Morse, The International Relations of the Chinese Empire (London: Longmans, 1910) I, p. 111] "[As a consequence of its engagements with the West] China has been compelled to abandon its inveterate anti-commercial and antisocial principles, and to acknowledge the independence and equality of other nations in the mutual intercourse of war and peace." [H. Wheaton, Elements of International Law (Boyd A. 2nd ed. 1880) p. 20]

On Foucault and Wolff or from Law to Political Economy

Leiden Journal of International Law, 2012

Even if Foucault was generally disposed to avoid the category of sovereignty in his genealogy of ... more Even if Foucault was generally disposed to avoid the category of sovereignty in his genealogy of governmentality, his lectures on the subject nevertheless have much to offer for our understanding of the historical tradition of international legal thought. The purpose of this article is to try to situate Christian Wolff's account of the jus gentium within Foucault's work, focusing in particular upon the way in which Wolff might be seen to exemplify elements of the transition identified by Foucault from government according to raison d'état to a new art of government informed by the emergence of political economy. This, it is argued, not only makes legible certain elements of Wolff's work that have otherwise remained obscure, but points also to the place of international law in the fine-grained materiality of everyday life.

Reading and Unreading a Historiography of Hiatus

What Happened to Unequal Treaties? The Continuities of Informal Empire

Nordic Journal of International Law, 2005

The barbarians are like beasts and not to be ruled on the same principles as Chinese. Were one to... more The barbarians are like beasts and not to be ruled on the same principles as Chinese. Were one to attempt to control them by the great maxims of reason it would tend to nothing but the greatest confusion. The ancient sovereigns well understood this and accordingly ruled barbarians by misrule. .. to rule barbarians by misrule was the true and best way of ruling them." [Confucian maxim attributed to Su Tung-po, cited in H. Morse, The International Relations of the Chinese Empire (London: Longmans, 1910) I, p. 111] "[As a consequence of its engagements with the West] China has been compelled to abandon its inveterate anti-commercial and antisocial principles, and to acknowledge the independence and equality of other nations in the mutual intercourse of war and peace." [H. Wheaton, Elements of International Law (Boyd A. 2nd ed. 1880) p. 20]

Decolonization, Concessions, and Acquired Rights

The Battle For International Law: South North Perspectives on the Decolonization Era, 2019

The twentieth century, when the future looks back on it, will not only be remembered as the era o... more

The Tyranny of Strangers: Transformative Occupations Old and New

London Review of International Law, 2021

In the aftermath of the US led invasion of Iraq in 2003 considerable attention was given to the a... more In the aftermath of the US led invasion of Iraq in 2003 considerable attention was given to the apparent emergence of a new type of belligerent occupation-the 'transformative occupation' which apparently challenged the traditional assumptions of the law of occupation. The suggestion here is that, as an examination of the British occupation of Mesopotamia between 1914-1924 reveals, the 'transformative occupation' is by no means a new institution, but is to be associated with a tradition of thought and practice in which belligerent occupation is tied to both colonialism and the inter-war Mandate System, and whose legacy is critical for understanding the role of occupation law today. O! People of Baghdad. Remember that for twenty-six generations you have suffered under strange tyrants who have ever endeavoured to set one Arab house against another in order that they might profit by your dissensions. Therefore, I am commanded to invite you, through your Nobles and Elders and Representatives, to participate in the management of your civil affairs in collaboration with the Political Representatives of Great Britain who accompany the British Army so that you may unite with your kinsmen in the North, East, South and West in realizing the aspirations of your race. 1 Lord Curzon: 'I should put in a British administrator, but not declare a protectorate… We shall have an administrator in any case behind the façade of Arab Government.' Mr Balfour: 'What do we mean by protectorate? Did we have one in Egypt before the war?' Lord Robert Cecil: 'No certainly not.' Mr Balfour: 'What had we?' Lord Robert Cecil: 'No one knows, but we had not a protectorate.' 2 'Everybody knows what a modern "protectorate" is; it is a mere synonym for a colony to which one refuses the rights of citizenship'. 3

Cold War International Law

International Law

Cold War International Law has conventionally been structured around a historiography of hiatus. ... more Cold War International Law has conventionally been structured around a historiography of hiatus. A “gap” is posited as inhering in international law sometime between 1948 and 1989. In this gap, there is very little international law—or there is an international law of suspension or crisis or deferral. Some of the present editors (Craven, Pahuja, Simpson) are constructing an alternative vision of Cold War international law as law of improvisation, of committed nonalignment, of ideational power, of responsibility, of complicity, of imagination, and of co-constitution. The Cold War needed international law, and the international law we have now is a product of the Cold War. Given all this, compiling a bibliography of Cold War international law raises some difficulties. A first, overarching challenge is how to relate two amorphous things: “international law,” with its many meanings, subfields, instruments, and writers, to “Cold War” in its many forms, locations, experiences, and legacie...

Statehood, Self-Determination, and Recognition

International Law, 2014

See, for example, proposals relating to the development of 'Global Administrative Law' (Kingsbury... more See, for example, proposals relating to the development of 'Global Administrative Law' (Kingsbury, Krisch, and Stewart, 2005) or other initiatives directed towards the development of the accountability of non-State actors more generally (Clapham, 2006). 3 See Hardt and Negri, 2000, p 15: 'Empire is formed not on the basis of force itself but on the basis of the capacity to present force as being in the service of right and peace'.

The Time of Revolution: Decolonisation, Heterodox International Legal

Routledge Handbook of International Law and the Humanities, 2021

Historiography and the Problem of the Contemporary 'Change is the law of life. That is the obviou... more Historiography and the Problem of the Contemporary 'Change is the law of life. That is the obvious truth of history. The current age is particularly an age of unprecedented speed and dynamism. The world has changed more in our time than throughout the whole of previous recorded history. The rate of change is still accelerating and its scope ever widening.' Ram Prakash Anand, New States and International Law (Delhi: Vikas Publishing House, 1972), 1. to which Anand, alongside many others, was visibly drawn. 2 But my concern here is not so much to pass comment upon the political temporalities of the present day, as to work through the linkages that were at play in the work of those such as Anandbetween a practice of decolonisation, a demand for the reconfiguration of international law, and a latent sensitivity to the question of time or temporality. My concern is to bring to an account of international law during the period of decolonisation, an appreciation of the idea that the central problematic was not simply one of international law's spatial ambit, but of its temporal structure. My medium for bringing these ideas together will be through the articulation of a specifiable problem: the problem of 'contemporaneity'. In its everyday sense, the 'contemporary' stands as a kind of shorthand for the 'present', for the 'hereabouts' of the now, or perhaps as that odd in-between period, as Arendt would put it, between past and future. 3 The contemporary in that sense, is that which is made intelligible by way of its contrast between a determined past, and an uncertain or unknowable future. Rather than work directly within this vein, however, I want to explore a more literal or etymological theme that is opened out by the idea of the contemporary. These themes resonate not only in terms of understanding the configurative significance of thinking in terms of the 'contemporary', but can also help us to see the place of the 'contemporary' in the legal discourses surrounding decolonisation. My interest is to think through the idea that the 'contemporary', as an experiential condition, carries with it two discrete connotations: that of living 'with time' (con tempus), and of living 'at the same time as others' (contemporaneus). Although these characteristics emerged as part of a particular European historical formation in late 18 th Century, they became a theoretical problematic in the middle of the 20 th Century when scholars of the 'Third

'Other Spaces': Constructing the Legal Architecture of a Cold War Commons and the Scientific-Technical Imaginary of Outer Space

In this article, I seek to develop the argument that the law of outer space, as it was to be deve... more In this article, I seek to develop the argument that the law of outer space, as it was to be developed during the 1960s and 1970s, configured outer space as a 'commons' in order to displace two prevailing 'dystopic' socio-technical imaginaries that were to be associated with the Cold War. One of these was that outer space might become a place of warfare-and, more specifically, a warfare of annihilatory proportions between the two main protagonists of the Cold War; the other, that it might be the object of 'primitive accumulation'. Drawing upon the work of Herbert Marcuse, I argue that, whilst the nascent code of outer space visibly sought to repress both of these possibilities, it did so by bringing into play a particular 'technological rationality', in which each of these aversions were to reappear as sustaining configurationsas what might be called the rational irrationalities of a Cold War commons.

The Ends of Consent

Lying behind this general hypothesis are two related theoretical or methodological intuitions. Th... more Lying behind this general hypothesis are two related theoretical or methodological intuitions. The first is that consent, as an idea, operates as a way of linking domestic and international authority by seeking to secure the validity of international transactions by reference to the conditioning grounds of (territorial) sovereignty. Its content, however, has not remained entirely stable. Despite a prevailing sense of the necessity of adopting a position of ostensible neutrality towards the operative conditions of domestic political arrangements, one may note the shift from a conception of consent premised upon the keeping of the sovereigns' promises to a modern, popular, perhaps democratic, notion of consent as 'self-rule'. 7 Whether or not there be a right to democratic government, or to popular control over the exercise of foreign policy, the practice of consent (by which I mean both the performance of formalities by which a State engages itself internationally and the rhetoric that underpins it) is such as to keep those agendas alive.

Theorising the Turn to History

On Foucault and Wolff or from Law to Political Economy

Even if Foucault was generally disposed to avoid the category of sovereignty in his genealogy of ... more Even if Foucault was generally disposed to avoid the category of sovereignty in his genealogy of governmentality, his lectures on the subject nevertheless have much to offer for our understanding of the historical tradition of international legal thought. The purpose of this article is to try to situate Christian Wolff's account of the jus gentium within Foucault's work, focusing in particular upon the way in which Wolff might be seen to exemplify elements of the transition identified by Foucault from government according to raison d'´etat to a new art of government informed by the emergence of political economy. This, it is argued, not only makes legible certain elements of Wolff's work that have otherwise remained obscure, but points also to the place of international law in the fine-grained materiality of everyday life.

The tyranny of strangers: transformative occupations old and new

London Review of International Law, 2021

In the aftermath of the US led invasion of Iraq in 2003, considerable attention was given to the ... more In the aftermath of the US led invasion of Iraq in 2003, considerable attention was given to the apparent emergence of a new type of belligerent occupation—the ‘transformative occupation’ which apparently challenged the traditional assumptions of the law of occupation. The suggestion here is that, as an examination of the British occupation of Mesopotamia between 1914-1924 reveals, the ‘transformative occupation’ is by no means a new institution, but is one that may be associated with a tradition of thought and practice in which the institution of belligerent occupationwas made congruent with the operational rationalities of colonial rule by re-imagining it as a form of sacred trust. The legacy of that history, it is contended, is critical for understanding the role of occupation law today.

OUP accepted manuscript

European Journal Of International Law, 2019

In this article, I seek to develop the argument that the law of outer space, as it was to be deve... more In this article, I seek to develop the argument that the law of outer space, as it was to be developed during the 1960s and 1970s, configured outer space as a ‘commons’ in order to displace two prevailing ‘dystopic’ socio-technical imaginaries that were to be associated with the Cold War. One of these was that outer space might become a place of warfare – and, more specifically, a warfare of annihilatory proportions between the two main protagonists of the Cold War; the other, that it might be the object of ‘primitive accumulation’. Drawing upon the work of Herbert Marcuse, I argue that, whilst the nascent code of outer space visibly sought to repress both of these possibilities, it did so by bringing into play a particular ‘technological rationality’, in which each of these aversions were to reappear as sustaining configurations – as what might be called the rational irrationalities of a Cold War commons.

The time of revolution

In focusing upon the pervasive theme of temporality that marks RP Anand’s seminal New States and ... more In focusing upon the pervasive theme of temporality that marks RP Anand’s seminal New States and International Law (1972) it is argued that one of his central pre-occupations was a concern for what it meant for the peoples of the Third World to live contemporaneously with those in the North. Noting the significance of a universal temporal calculus (clock time) for processes of both nation-building and global capitalism it is suggested that the temporal disjunctions that appeared to structure Anand’s account of ‘contemporary’ international law was to foreground the limits of both. For just as each depended upon putting into operation a temporal technology – engendering a ‘fictional presentness’ by the measuring of life against the clock – so also did that technology both reveal the asymmetrical conditions of life in the world, and the scale of the challenge placed before the world by the utopia of ‘presentness’

Colonialism and Domination

Oxford Handbooks Online, 2012

colonialism and domination  historic formation of notions of war, sovereignty and territory an... more colonialism and domination  historic formation of notions of war, sovereignty and territory and not notice the role they assumed in the violent expansion of European empires. At certain points of time, of course, the relationship between the development of nascent legal doctrine and the practice of colonial rule has been entirely transparent. Just as Vitoria's famous lectures from 1532-De Indis Noviter Inventis and De Jure Bellis Hispanorum in Barbaros 3-addressed themselves to the titles the Spanish put forward in order to justify their domination in the New World, so also, some 360 years later, Westlake, Martitz, Hornung, and other members of the newly-formed Institut de Droit International were to debate the terms under which territory in Africa might be brought under colonial rule. 4 On other occasions, and far more frequently, colonialism has remained a signifi cant background theme, providing the setting for doctrinal debates over freedom of the high seas, the use of force, title to territory, recognition, and statehood. Dealing with its legacy, of course, was also a central preoccupation in the 20th century both informing institutional initiatives (mandates and trusteeships) and emergent doctrine such as that relating to self-determination, sovereignty over natural resources, human rights, the law of armed confl ict, state succession, and the boundary delimitation (uti possidetis iuris). There is, it might be suggested, scarcely a single area of international law that has not, in some manner or other, been informed by this history. Yet even if there is broad concurrence in the view that the history of international law is intimately related to the history of colonial rule, there is, as I have already suggested, considerably less agreement over 'how' one may plausibly articulate, or account for, that relationship. For some, the relationship is almost an incidental one-the expansion of European empires and the development of international law being the product of an intra-European rivalry whose centre of gravity remained fi rmly European. 5 For others, the relationship is taken to be far more central, but here again the contrasts are marked. For Tony Anghie, for example, European international law not only provided a means of legitimizing imperialism, but was also profoundly shaped by that encounter, encoding within its disciplinary structures (especially sovereignty) the discriminatory features of cultural difference. 6 For China Mieville, by contrast, colonization was to be understood not so much in terms of its content, but in terms of the imperialism of its form: Colonialism is in the very form, the structure of international law itself, predicated on global trade between inherently unequal polities, with unequal coercive violence implied in the very commodity form. This unequal coercion is what forces particular content into the legal form. 7

The preoccupations of occupation: Aeyal Gross and The Writing on the Wall

London Review of International Law, 2018

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a ubiquitous herpesvirus for which there is no vaccine or cure. T... more Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a ubiquitous herpesvirus for which there is no vaccine or cure. This viral infection, once acquired, is lifelong , residing latently in hematopoietic cells. However, latently infected individuals with weakened immune systems often undergo HCMV reactivation, which can cause serious complications in immunosuppressed and immunocompromised patients. Current anti-viral therapies target late stages of viral replication, and are often met with therapeutic resistance, necessitating the development of novel therapeutics. In this current study, we identified a naturally-occurring flavonoid compound, deguelin, which inhibits HCMV lytic replication. Our findings reveal that nanomolar concentrations of deguelin significantly suppress the production of the infectious virus. Further, we show that deguelin inhibits the lytic cycle during the phase of the replication cycle consistent with early (E) gene and protein expression. Importantly, our data reveal that deguelin inhibits replication of a ganciclovir-resistant strain of HCMV. Together, our findings identify a novel, naturally occurring compound that may prove useful in the treatment of HCMV replication.

Between law and history: the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 and the logic of free trade

London Review of International Law

The Berlin West Africa Conference of 1884-1885 has assumed a powerful symbolic presence in intern... more The Berlin West Africa Conference of 1884-1885 has assumed a powerful symbolic presence in international legal accounts of the 19th century, but for historians of the era its importance has often been doubted. This article seeks to re-interpret the place of the Berlin General Act in late 19th-century history, suggesting that the divergence of views has arisen largely as a consequence of an inattentiveness to the place of systemic logics in legal regimes of this kind.

The Invention of a Tradition: Westlake, The Berlin Conference and the Historicisation of International Law

What Happened to Unequal Treaties? The Continuities of Informal Empire

Nordic Journal of International Law, 2005

The barbarians are like beasts and not to be ruled on the same principles as Chinese. Were one to... more The barbarians are like beasts and not to be ruled on the same principles as Chinese. Were one to attempt to control them by the great maxims of reason it would tend to nothing but the greatest confusion. The ancient sovereigns well understood this and accordingly ruled barbarians by misrule. .. to rule barbarians by misrule was the true and best way of ruling them." [Confucian maxim attributed to Su Tung-po, cited in H. Morse, The International Relations of the Chinese Empire (London: Longmans, 1910) I, p. 111] "[As a consequence of its engagements with the West] China has been compelled to abandon its inveterate anti-commercial and antisocial principles, and to acknowledge the independence and equality of other nations in the mutual intercourse of war and peace." [H. Wheaton, Elements of International Law (Boyd A. 2nd ed. 1880) p. 20]

On Foucault and Wolff or from Law to Political Economy

Leiden Journal of International Law, 2012

Even if Foucault was generally disposed to avoid the category of sovereignty in his genealogy of ... more Even if Foucault was generally disposed to avoid the category of sovereignty in his genealogy of governmentality, his lectures on the subject nevertheless have much to offer for our understanding of the historical tradition of international legal thought. The purpose of this article is to try to situate Christian Wolff's account of the jus gentium within Foucault's work, focusing in particular upon the way in which Wolff might be seen to exemplify elements of the transition identified by Foucault from government according to raison d'état to a new art of government informed by the emergence of political economy. This, it is argued, not only makes legible certain elements of Wolff's work that have otherwise remained obscure, but points also to the place of international law in the fine-grained materiality of everyday life.

Reading and Unreading a Historiography of Hiatus

What Happened to Unequal Treaties? The Continuities of Informal Empire

Nordic Journal of International Law, 2005

The barbarians are like beasts and not to be ruled on the same principles as Chinese. Were one to... more The barbarians are like beasts and not to be ruled on the same principles as Chinese. Were one to attempt to control them by the great maxims of reason it would tend to nothing but the greatest confusion. The ancient sovereigns well understood this and accordingly ruled barbarians by misrule. .. to rule barbarians by misrule was the true and best way of ruling them." [Confucian maxim attributed to Su Tung-po, cited in H. Morse, The International Relations of the Chinese Empire (London: Longmans, 1910) I, p. 111] "[As a consequence of its engagements with the West] China has been compelled to abandon its inveterate anti-commercial and antisocial principles, and to acknowledge the independence and equality of other nations in the mutual intercourse of war and peace." [H. Wheaton, Elements of International Law (Boyd A. 2nd ed. 1880) p. 20]

Decolonization, Concessions, and Acquired Rights

The Battle For International Law: South North Perspectives on the Decolonization Era, 2019

The twentieth century, when the future looks back on it, will not only be remembered as the era o... more

The Tyranny of Strangers: Transformative Occupations Old and New

London Review of International Law, 2021

In the aftermath of the US led invasion of Iraq in 2003 considerable attention was given to the a... more In the aftermath of the US led invasion of Iraq in 2003 considerable attention was given to the apparent emergence of a new type of belligerent occupation-the 'transformative occupation' which apparently challenged the traditional assumptions of the law of occupation. The suggestion here is that, as an examination of the British occupation of Mesopotamia between 1914-1924 reveals, the 'transformative occupation' is by no means a new institution, but is to be associated with a tradition of thought and practice in which belligerent occupation is tied to both colonialism and the inter-war Mandate System, and whose legacy is critical for understanding the role of occupation law today. O! People of Baghdad. Remember that for twenty-six generations you have suffered under strange tyrants who have ever endeavoured to set one Arab house against another in order that they might profit by your dissensions. Therefore, I am commanded to invite you, through your Nobles and Elders and Representatives, to participate in the management of your civil affairs in collaboration with the Political Representatives of Great Britain who accompany the British Army so that you may unite with your kinsmen in the North, East, South and West in realizing the aspirations of your race. 1 Lord Curzon: 'I should put in a British administrator, but not declare a protectorate… We shall have an administrator in any case behind the façade of Arab Government.' Mr Balfour: 'What do we mean by protectorate? Did we have one in Egypt before the war?' Lord Robert Cecil: 'No certainly not.' Mr Balfour: 'What had we?' Lord Robert Cecil: 'No one knows, but we had not a protectorate.' 2 'Everybody knows what a modern "protectorate" is; it is a mere synonym for a colony to which one refuses the rights of citizenship'. 3

Cold War International Law

International Law

Cold War International Law has conventionally been structured around a historiography of hiatus. ... more Cold War International Law has conventionally been structured around a historiography of hiatus. A “gap” is posited as inhering in international law sometime between 1948 and 1989. In this gap, there is very little international law—or there is an international law of suspension or crisis or deferral. Some of the present editors (Craven, Pahuja, Simpson) are constructing an alternative vision of Cold War international law as law of improvisation, of committed nonalignment, of ideational power, of responsibility, of complicity, of imagination, and of co-constitution. The Cold War needed international law, and the international law we have now is a product of the Cold War. Given all this, compiling a bibliography of Cold War international law raises some difficulties. A first, overarching challenge is how to relate two amorphous things: “international law,” with its many meanings, subfields, instruments, and writers, to “Cold War” in its many forms, locations, experiences, and legacie...

Statehood, Self-Determination, and Recognition

International Law, 2014

See, for example, proposals relating to the development of 'Global Administrative Law' (Kingsbury... more See, for example, proposals relating to the development of 'Global Administrative Law' (Kingsbury, Krisch, and Stewart, 2005) or other initiatives directed towards the development of the accountability of non-State actors more generally (Clapham, 2006). 3 See Hardt and Negri, 2000, p 15: 'Empire is formed not on the basis of force itself but on the basis of the capacity to present force as being in the service of right and peace'.

The Time of Revolution: Decolonisation, Heterodox International Legal

Routledge Handbook of International Law and the Humanities, 2021

Historiography and the Problem of the Contemporary 'Change is the law of life. That is the obviou... more Historiography and the Problem of the Contemporary 'Change is the law of life. That is the obvious truth of history. The current age is particularly an age of unprecedented speed and dynamism. The world has changed more in our time than throughout the whole of previous recorded history. The rate of change is still accelerating and its scope ever widening.' Ram Prakash Anand, New States and International Law (Delhi: Vikas Publishing House, 1972), 1. to which Anand, alongside many others, was visibly drawn. 2 But my concern here is not so much to pass comment upon the political temporalities of the present day, as to work through the linkages that were at play in the work of those such as Anandbetween a practice of decolonisation, a demand for the reconfiguration of international law, and a latent sensitivity to the question of time or temporality. My concern is to bring to an account of international law during the period of decolonisation, an appreciation of the idea that the central problematic was not simply one of international law's spatial ambit, but of its temporal structure. My medium for bringing these ideas together will be through the articulation of a specifiable problem: the problem of 'contemporaneity'. In its everyday sense, the 'contemporary' stands as a kind of shorthand for the 'present', for the 'hereabouts' of the now, or perhaps as that odd in-between period, as Arendt would put it, between past and future. 3 The contemporary in that sense, is that which is made intelligible by way of its contrast between a determined past, and an uncertain or unknowable future. Rather than work directly within this vein, however, I want to explore a more literal or etymological theme that is opened out by the idea of the contemporary. These themes resonate not only in terms of understanding the configurative significance of thinking in terms of the 'contemporary', but can also help us to see the place of the 'contemporary' in the legal discourses surrounding decolonisation. My interest is to think through the idea that the 'contemporary', as an experiential condition, carries with it two discrete connotations: that of living 'with time' (con tempus), and of living 'at the same time as others' (contemporaneus). Although these characteristics emerged as part of a particular European historical formation in late 18 th Century, they became a theoretical problematic in the middle of the 20 th Century when scholars of the 'Third

'Other Spaces': Constructing the Legal Architecture of a Cold War Commons and the Scientific-Technical Imaginary of Outer Space

In this article, I seek to develop the argument that the law of outer space, as it was to be deve... more In this article, I seek to develop the argument that the law of outer space, as it was to be developed during the 1960s and 1970s, configured outer space as a 'commons' in order to displace two prevailing 'dystopic' socio-technical imaginaries that were to be associated with the Cold War. One of these was that outer space might become a place of warfare-and, more specifically, a warfare of annihilatory proportions between the two main protagonists of the Cold War; the other, that it might be the object of 'primitive accumulation'. Drawing upon the work of Herbert Marcuse, I argue that, whilst the nascent code of outer space visibly sought to repress both of these possibilities, it did so by bringing into play a particular 'technological rationality', in which each of these aversions were to reappear as sustaining configurationsas what might be called the rational irrationalities of a Cold War commons.

The Ends of Consent

Lying behind this general hypothesis are two related theoretical or methodological intuitions. Th... more Lying behind this general hypothesis are two related theoretical or methodological intuitions. The first is that consent, as an idea, operates as a way of linking domestic and international authority by seeking to secure the validity of international transactions by reference to the conditioning grounds of (territorial) sovereignty. Its content, however, has not remained entirely stable. Despite a prevailing sense of the necessity of adopting a position of ostensible neutrality towards the operative conditions of domestic political arrangements, one may note the shift from a conception of consent premised upon the keeping of the sovereigns' promises to a modern, popular, perhaps democratic, notion of consent as 'self-rule'. 7 Whether or not there be a right to democratic government, or to popular control over the exercise of foreign policy, the practice of consent (by which I mean both the performance of formalities by which a State engages itself internationally and the rhetoric that underpins it) is such as to keep those agendas alive.

Theorising the Turn to History

On Foucault and Wolff or from Law to Political Economy

Even if Foucault was generally disposed to avoid the category of sovereignty in his genealogy of ... more Even if Foucault was generally disposed to avoid the category of sovereignty in his genealogy of governmentality, his lectures on the subject nevertheless have much to offer for our understanding of the historical tradition of international legal thought. The purpose of this article is to try to situate Christian Wolff's account of the jus gentium within Foucault's work, focusing in particular upon the way in which Wolff might be seen to exemplify elements of the transition identified by Foucault from government according to raison d'´etat to a new art of government informed by the emergence of political economy. This, it is argued, not only makes legible certain elements of Wolff's work that have otherwise remained obscure, but points also to the place of international law in the fine-grained materiality of everyday life.

Reading and Unreading a Historiography of Hiatus in Matthew Craven, Sundhya Pahuja and Gerry Simpson (eds) International Law and the Cold War (CUP, 2019)

by Sundhya Pahuja and Matt Craven

International Law and the Cold War (edited with Matthew Craven and Gerry Simpson) (CUP, 2019)

by Sundhya Pahuja and Matt Craven

International law and the Cold War, 2019

International Law and the Cold War is the first book to examine the relationship between the Col... more International Law and the Cold War is the first book to examine the
relationship between the Cold War and International Law. The authors
adopt a variety of creative approaches – in relation to events and fields
such as nuclear war, environmental protection, the Suez crisis and the
Lumumba assassination – in order to demonstrate the many ways in
which international law acted upon the Cold War and in turn show how
contemporary international law is an inheritance of the Cold War. Their
innovative research traces the connections between the Cold War and
contemporary legal constructions of the nation-state, the environment,
the third world and the refugee; and between law, technology, science,
history, literature, art and politics.