Law of Geography and the Geography of Law: A Post-colonial Mapping

Mahmud, Tayyab

doi:10.2139/ssrn.1433449

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…With this power play, the government was granted the right to dispossess certain groups of people in a lawful manner. As was the case with the colonial context under which the conquest and control of indigenous peoples was made possible by the exercise of aggressive legal means (Comaroff 2001: 306), such a marriage of law and geography opened another way for the post-colonial state to exercise ‘coercive uses of law to dispossess’ (Mahmud 2010: 71) those who were not considered rightful members of a new nation, or outside of what was imagined to be a national geography.…”

Section: Deathscapes At the Intersection Of Law And Post-colonialitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Bulldozing the dead: Chinese, citizenry, and cemetery in post-colonial South Korea

Eom

2022

Mod. Asian Stud.

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This article looks at lawsuits surrounding two Chinese cemeteries in the mid-twentieth century South Korean cities of Incheon and Seoul as crucial sites to examine the post-colonial legal construction of national citizenry based on property rights. While different legal rationales were employed in each case, the two Chinese cemeteries were relocated to the periphery of each city as a consequence of the litigation. In Incheon, it was argued that the cemetery was owned by Chinese nationals whose land rights were ambiguous and hence open to question, both during the colonial and post-colonial period. On the other hand, in Seoul, rights to the cemetery were at stake due to its association with Japanese nationals, whose holdings were regarded as ‘enemy properties’ in the post-colonial years. Not only were the lawsuits symbolic events that foreshadowed the displacement of Chinese residents from what was considered to be Korea's national land, they also revealed an operative ambiguity in the post-colonial legal system, readily exploited as a tool for discrimination. Drawing upon an analysis of these cases, I argue that the Chinese cemeteries served as a reminder that uncertainty and ambiguity were on tap in the legal workings of post-colonial society, manifested in blunt efforts to define its legitimate members and dictate who is entitled to be buried within a nation's borders.

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Section: Deathscapes At the Intersection Of Law And Post-colonialitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Bulldozing the dead: Chinese, citizenry, and cemetery in post-colonial South Korea

Eom

2022

Mod. Asian Stud.

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“…Anghie 2007;Chimni 2013;Chakrabarty 2000;Kerner 2018). Although much academic attention has been devoted to the Global North's and West's imperialism of the Global South and the far East, historical intra-European relations have also been subjected to postcolonial critique-such as English colonialism of the Celts and German hegemony over Central Europe (Mahmud 2007).…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Not Quite Right: Representations of Eastern Europeans in ECJ Discourse

Myslinska

2020

Int J Polit Cult Soc

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Although the increasing responsiveness of the Court of Justice of the European Union (the 'ECJ') jurisprudence to western Member States' concerns regarding Central and Eastern European ('CEE') nationals' mobility has garnered academic attention, ECJ discourse has not been scrutinised for how it approaches the CEE region or CEE movers. Applying postcolonial theory, this article seeks to fill this gap and to explore whether there are any indications that ECJ discourse is in line with the historical western-centric inferiorisation of the CEE region. A critical discourse analysis of a set of ECJ judgments and corresponding Advocate General opinions pertaining to CEE nationals illustrates not only how the ECJ adopts numerous discursive strategies to maintain its authority, but also how it tends to prioritise values of the western Member States, while overlooking interests of CEE movers. Its one-sided approach is further reinforced by referring to irrelevant facts and negative assumptions to create an image of CEE nationals as socially and economically inferior to westerners, as not belonging to the proper EU polity and as not quite deserving of EU law's protections. By silencing CEE nationals' voices, while disregarding the background of east/ west socioeconomic and political power differentials and precariousness experienced by many CEE workers in the west, such racialising discourse normalises ethnicity-and classbased stereotypes. These findings also help to contextualise both EU and western policies targeting CEE movers and evidence of their unequal outcomes in the west, and are in line with today's nuanced expressions of racisms. By illustrating the ECJ's role in addressing values pertinent to mobile CEE individuals, this study facilitates a fuller appreciation of the ECJ's power in shaping and reflecting western-centric EU identity and policies. Engaging with such issues will not only allow us to better appreciate-and question-the ECJ's legitimacy, but might also facilitate a better understanding of power dynamics within the EU. This study also makes significant theoretical and methodological contributions. It expands (and complicates) the application of postcolonial theory to contemporary intra-EU processes, while illustrating the usefulness of applying critical discourse analysis to exploring differentiation, exclusion, subordination and power within legal language.

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“…In this regard, the work of legal scholar William Twining ( 2009) is instructive. Using the metaphor of mapping (Sousa Santos, 1987;Mahmud, 2010), Twining questions the neat, ordered and hierarchical organization of legal relations and argues that the local, national, and international scales of law are muddied by: empires, alliances coalitions, diasporas, networks, trade routes and movements . .…”

Section: Colonial Lawfare and Twailmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lawfare and the juridification of late modern war

Jones

2015

Progress in Human Geography

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Processes of juridification are a defining feature of late modern war. But geographic accounts of war have generally not considered the role that law plays in shaping its conduct. This paper explores the juridification of war using the concept of lawfare. Lawfare may signal an intensification and shift in the relationship between war and law, but I argue that understanding the nature and extent of these changes requires a careful examination of the historical geographies of war, law and lawfare. Drawing from critical legal approaches I offer a preliminary geographical and historical theorization of lawfare so that we may better understand the relationship between war and law today.

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Law of Geography and the Geography of Law: A Post-colonial Mapping

Abstract: This article examines the relationship between law

Cited by 6 publications

References 47 publications

Bulldozing the dead: Chinese, citizenry, and cemetery in post-colonial South Korea

Bulldozing the dead: Chinese, citizenry, and cemetery in post-colonial South Korea

Not Quite Right: Representations of Eastern Europeans in ECJ Discourse

Lawfare and the juridification of late modern war

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