Peace, war, law: teaching international law in contexts

Abstract

This essay takes up the question of what it is to teach international law ‘in context’, drawing on experiences of teaching undergraduate survey courses in the US and UK, and designing a new LLM module on Histories of International Law. The essay begins with an exploration of teaching as a particular context of its own – one with constraints which might also function as foils for creativity. It then sketches some aspects of what teaching international law ‘in context(s)’ might involve, including the ways in which contexts of different kinds put in question one's theory of law, and vice versa. It turns, finally, to an examination of the promise and limits of interdisciplinarity – particularly recourse to history as a discipline – in illuminating contexts.

Decolonising the International Law Curriculum: A Critical LiteratureRevieW

“…A common concern is that international law tends to be taught by centring and prioritising a 'mainstream' view. 47 Decolonial and critical approaches to international law are concerned with trying to 'de-centre' this mainstream. Moïse Mbengue and Akinkugbe highlight how, while much knowledge of public international law is produced by Global South scholars, it has not been centred in scholarly materials and teaching in both the Global South and in the Global North.…”

Reflection on the Teaching Path of International Law under the Background of “Anti-globalization”

“…Hence, the teaching of international law curriculum should emphasize theory teaching, aim at application and take the origin of international law as the basic structure of the teaching content, and cultivate the thinking of international law debate [5] . At the same time, international law must be taught in context [6] , it is emphasized that in the Chinese context, international law teaching can be carried out with the help of Chinese practice and cases [7] . 2.2 Research on the influence of "anti-globalization" on higher teaching The trend of "anti-globalization" presents a "multi-dimensional integrated" trend pattern, including protectionism in the economic field, isolationism in the political field, nationalism in the cultural field, populism in the social field and imperialism in the ecological field [8] .…”