{"id":22985,"date":"2024-08-02T09:00:58","date_gmt":"2024-08-02T07:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/?p=22985"},"modified":"2024-08-05T10:01:47","modified_gmt":"2024-08-05T08:01:47","slug":"contrapuntal-readings-of-in-through-international-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/contrapuntal-readings-of-in-through-international-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Contrapuntal Readings of\/in\/through International Law"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1><a href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/fugue\"><strong>Fugue<\/strong><\/a><\/h1>\n<p><strong>Liberal Legal Order Re:dux, Re:boot, Re:turn.<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201c<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.17176\/20240725-150915-0\"><em>The liberal international legal order is dead.<br \/>\nLong live the liberal international legal order!\u201d<\/em><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This, it seems, remains the paradox of our contemporary moment. As <a href=\"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/palestine-israel-and-the-disordering-of-international-law\/\">Michelle Burgis-Kasthala<\/a> inferred this week, and I have felt acutely, the liberal international legal order died in the months after 7 October 2023. As state officials (notably, those in the United States) became <a href=\"https:\/\/jointstatement.tiiny.site\/\">complicit in facilitating the continuous flow of arms<\/a> to an Israeli government proclaiming a \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/allegralaboratory.net\/reframing-hamas\/\">war on Hamas<\/a>\u2019, which very soon became the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/full\/10.1080\/14623528.2024.2351261\">outright elimination<\/a> (or if you prefer, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.icc-cpi.int\/sites\/default\/files\/2024-05\/240520-panel-report-eng.pdf\">extermination<\/a>) of (the) Palestinian people, their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sapiens.org\/archaeology\/cultural-heritage-gaza-destruction\/\">cultural life,<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unep.org\/news-and-stories\/press-release\/damage-gaza-causing-new-risks-human-health-and-long-term-recovery#:~:text=Nairobi%2C%2018%20June%202024%20%E2%80%93%20The,damage%20to%20its%20natural%20ecosystems.\">irreversible damage to the Palestinian ecosystem<\/a> in the \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/full\/10.1080\/14623528.2024.2351261\">war on Gaza<\/a>\u2019, any sense of a liberal legal order seemed to die an unceremonious death. What \u2018order\u2019 is there to speak of, when an \u2018inherent right to self-defence\u2019 is used to warrant unceasing, inhumane attacks against Palestinians deemed \u2018legitimate\u2019 military targets including those in hospitals, schools and refugee camps and being <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ipcinfo.org\/fileadmin\/user_upload\/ipcinfo\/docs\/IPC_Gaza_Strip_Acute_Food_Insecurity_Feb_July2024_Special_Brief.pdf\">starved to death<\/a>? When the <em>ad bellum<\/em> use of force is so removed from the principles of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ejiltalk.org\/does-israel-have-the-right-to-self-defence-and-what-are-the-restrictions\/\">proportionality and necessity<\/a>, that justifying the ongoing acts of violence on this basis seems <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=I32ztwq0A_M\">shameless<\/a> ((<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=I32ztwq0A_M\">LSE<\/a>, Academic Freedom after the Destruction of Gaza\u2019s Universities, 2024)?<\/p>\n<p>When the only response I could give to my perplexed and distraught students which made any sense to me at all was, \u2018I\u2019m crying too\u2026.I can tell you <em>what <\/em>the justifications are, and <em>why<\/em>, but I do not understand <em>how<\/em> this is being justified. It undermines the object and purpose of the Geneva Conventions, returning us to \u2018just war\u2019 doctrine. It also completely undermines the purpose of the United Nations Charter, re-writing our understanding of self-defence as the rule (Article 51), rather than the exception (Article 2(4)), or seeing it as irrelevant in relation to the \u2018war on terror\u2019. It is, at best, an extreme subjugation of the object and purpose of the Genocide Convention \u2013 a turning on its head of the obligation to prevent, now seemingly being utilised to prevent the destruction of the State of Israel, rather than confront in all its brutal complexity the use of \u2018war on terror\u2019 doctrine to justify the pre-emptive destruction of the Palestinian people. I cannot understand legally <em>how<\/em> this makes any sense, at all. And I <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ejiltalk.org\/does-israel-have-the-right-to-defend-itself\/\">disagree vehemently<\/a> with my colleagues that maintain either the expansionist tendencies or the normative indeterminacy of self-defence doctrine in order to do so\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Yet simultaneously, the liberal international legal order seems more alive and well than ever. The response to Gaza for many international lawyers (including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.icc-cpi.int\/sites\/default\/files\/CourtRecords\/0902ebd1809006d1.pdf\">myself<\/a>) has been viscerally liberal, ordered and institutional. From the United Nations\u2019 apex institutions of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.icj-cij.org\/case\/192\">International Court of Justice<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.icc-cpi.int\/news\/statement-icc-prosecutor-karim-aa-khan-kc-applications-arrest-warrants-situation-state\">International Criminal Court<\/a>, to the UN <a href=\"https:\/\/press.un.org\/en\/2024\/ga12585.doc.htm\">General Assembly<\/a>, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.undp.org\/arab-states\/publications\/gaza-war-expected-socio-economic-impacts-state-palestine\">UNDP<\/a>, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/uk\/news\/speeches-and-statements\/civilians-gaza-extreme-peril-while-world-watches-ten-requirements\">United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees<\/a>, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wfp.org\/news\/wfp-response-new-ipc-food-security-assessment-gaza\">World Food Programme<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unicef.org\/blog\/gaza-its-chaos-and-ruin-everywhere\">UNICEF<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/arabstates.unwomen.org\/en\/stories\/news\/2024\/06\/at-least-557000-women-in-gaza-are-facing-severe-food-insecurity\">UNWomen<\/a>, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ohchr.org\/en\/statements-and-speeches\/2024\/06\/we-must-urgently-find-our-way-back-peace-says-high-commissioner#:~:text=Israel's%20relentless%20strikes%20in%20Gaza,This%20must%20end.\">Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ohchr.org\/en\/press-releases\/2024\/07\/un-experts-declare-famine-has-spread-throughout-gaza-strip#:~:text=%E2%80%9CWe%20declare%20that%20Israel's%20intentional,famine%20across%20all%20of%20Gaza.\">independent international human rights experts<\/a>, and, after nearly six months of stalemate, the <a href=\"https:\/\/press.un.org\/en\/2024\/sc15641.doc.htm#:~:text=The%20Council%20then%20adopted%20the,to%20a%20lasting%20sustainable%20ceasefire.\">Security Council<\/a>, there have been ongoing demands for a return to our \u2018agreed <a href=\"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/governmentalities-of-disorder\/\">secular religion\u2019<\/a>, the rule of law. For justice and accountability, for ceasefire. These statements then, do not so much articulate a paradox as they do enunciate a paradigm. The lifeblood of the order might be dead, but the order itself is very much intact. The interpretation of the rules changes. The order stays the same.<\/p>\n<p>Undoubtedly, my tears for Gaza will be perceived as cheap affect for those <a href=\"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/book\/10.1007\/978-3-662-62128-8\">more cynical<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/news\/international-law-must-be-fit-for-the-challenges-of-21st-century\">less patient<\/a> with me than my present company. How dare I cry, from my comfortable ivory tower in London. International law is, after all, dependent on crises for its very existence (<a href=\"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1111\/1468-2230.00385#:~:text=Hilary%20Charlesworth*&amp;text=International%20lawyers%20revel%20in%20a,is%20of%20immediate%2C%20intense%20relevance.\">Charlesworth 2002<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/brill.com\/edcollbook-oa\/title\/61015?language=en\">Mbengue and d\u2019Aspremont et al<\/a>, 2022). Still others will say that Gaza is an immense tragedy, but so too, are a litany of other ongoing and past egregious conflicts too great in number to mention them here credibly (and for fear of leaving one out). <em>Of course<\/em> we return to the <em>liberal<\/em> international legal order, Michelle. <em>What else is there?<\/em> As the \u201990s pop-Gods turned pariahs, U2, once proclaimed (albeit in distinctly analogue terms),<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2018If there\u2019s an order <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>In all of this disorder <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Is it like a tape recorder?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Can we rewind it just once more?<\/em>\u2019 (\u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=xRI6cffvcO8\">Wake Up Deadman\u2019<\/a> on <em>Pop<\/em>, 1997, 3:18-3:38)).<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>Why then, a \u2018<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1093\/ejil\/chac054\"><em>disordering sensibility\u2019<\/em><\/a><em>, amidst all of this? <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>What to make of it?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Disorder beyond Re-ordering: From Dialogue to Dialectic and Back Again<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I am grateful for the opportunity provided by Su\u00e9 Gonzalez and Anna Sophia Tiedeke, at V\u00f6lkerrechtsblog to engage in these reflecti\u00d6ns. I have interpreted their call to be playful in keeping with Vasuki Nesiah\u2019s suggestion in recent times to open up my \u2018toybox\u2019 and let go of my liberal legal toolbox (<a href=\"https:\/\/lselaw.events\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Underworlds-Conference-programme-Final-2.pdf\">Underworlds<\/a>, 2024). I am also deeply grateful for the reflecti\u00d6ns provided by the authors \u2013 and one author\/artist \u2013 featured this week, all of whom provide a depth and breadth of insight that has enabled me to dare to imagine disordering, again. Drawing from <a href=\"https:\/\/global.oup.com\/academic\/product\/feminist-dialogues-on-international-law-9780199685103?cc=gb&amp;lang=en&amp;#:~:text=Through%20incorporating%20into%20mainstream%20international,impervious%20to%20key%20feminist%20dialogues.\">Gina Heathcote\u2019s<\/a> musings, I have placed the disparate works of these elegant thinkers in dialogue with each other under different composed epigraphs. By dialogue, here, I am referring to how the tensions between various accounts of disorder are surfacing and enable us to conceive of subjects in international law, and international legal terms themselves, as plural and split (<a href=\"https:\/\/global.oup.com\/academic\/product\/feminist-dialogues-on-international-law-9780199685103?cc=gb&amp;lang=en&amp;\">Heathcote<\/a>, p.169). I do not assume to render an agreed reading of these authors\u2019 texts, nor do I try to assume that there will be one agreed reading or interpretation of my attempt to illustrate my disordering methodology at play in this reflecti\u00d6n.<\/p>\n<p>I have done so, conscious of leaving space for interrup &#8212;<\/p>\n<p>Yet because creative play for me inevitably begins and ends with music, I have conceived of these \u2018dialogues\u2019 in my response to these reflecti\u00d6ns not as conversations, but as the contrapuntal lines in a fugue. (What follows is undertaken with humility, in full knowledge that I am not a musicologist and in keeping with the spirit of play).<\/p>\n<p>As a musical form, the fugue comprises<\/p>\n<p>separate<\/p>\n<p>but interrelated<\/p>\n<p>lines of melody that together exhibit a complex tonal and harmonic range referred to as<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/polyphony\"><strong>Polyphony<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Ordinarily, a fugue starts with a subject voice, establishing the primary melody, which is then answered by a voice in the dominant key of the original. A further range of melodic lines, known as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/counterpoints\">counterpoints<\/a>, are then added to the fugue, to add complexity and depth to these two.<\/p>\n<p>Counterpoints can comprise both notes and rests. (Rests are silent, but are indicated in the music). Counterpoints can act as arguments to the original statement (dialectic) or reinterpretations of them or additions to them (dialogue).<\/p>\n<p>A fugue comprises the ongoing interplay of statement and answer between these various voices, creating harmony and dissonance polyphonically, i.e., through many parts, simultaneously combined. The Baroque period (1600 \u2013 1750), when the fugue was at its height, was a period of intense improvisation, during which the tonal, harmonic and dynamic range of western music expanded enormously. The same can be said of law at this time. (<a href=\"https:\/\/papers.ssrn.com\/sol3\/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2122874\">Manderson 2011<\/a>, 2). As a form, a fugue is dangerous, precarious, because of its call to order, and (in my view) should be treated as such. And yet\u2026.<\/p>\n<p>In his ovan* work, <a href=\"https:\/\/monoskop.org\/images\/f\/f9\/Said_Edward_Culture_and_Imperialism.pdf\"><em>Culture and Imperialism<\/em><\/a> (1993), Edward Said defends an interpretation of literary and historical texts he describes as \u2018contrapuntal reading\u2019. Contrapuntal readings interweave the internal (intrinsic) and external (extrinsic) readings of a work in order to remind the reader that the structure invoked in the text has plausible alternatives the work itself excludes. It situates the text (or in the case of international law, situates the legal doctrine) within a wider range of imaginative possibilities. It does so by providing the reader with overlapping aesthetic and hermeneutic possibilities to understand both the devices used and interpretations provided in different ways (<a href=\"https:\/\/muse.jhu.edu\/article\/416160\/pdf\">Wilson, 1994<\/a>, 266). For Said, the classic illustration is Jane Austen\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/janeaustens.house\/jane-austen\/novels\/mansfield-park\/\"><em>Mansfield Park<\/em><\/a> and the treatment of the absent patriarch, Mr Bertram, who we are told is away on business in his plantations in Antigua. Contrapuntally read, the silent narrative of slavery and exploitation upon which the entirety of the wealth of those living in <em>Mansfield Park<\/em> depends is both absent and present in Austen\u2019s text.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps lesser known than <a href=\"https:\/\/monoskop.org\/images\/f\/f9\/Said_Edward_Culture_and_Imperialism.pdf\"><em>Culture and Imperialism<\/em><\/a>, however, is Said\u2019s earlier work, <a href=\"https:\/\/cup.columbia.edu\/book\/musical-elaborations\/9780231073196\"><em>Musical Elaborations<\/em><\/a> (1991), which itself can be construed as a contrapuntal voice to that work. In this work, Said, a talented pianist and music critic, provides greater depth to his understanding of counterpoint. Here, he draws significantly from Theodor Adorno\u2019s discussion of the fugue and in particular, Adorno\u2019s discussion of the work of Johann Sebastian Bach (<a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/scholar?hl=en&amp;as_sdt=0%2C5&amp;q=%22Harrison%22+AND+%22fugue%22+AND+%22colonialism%22&amp;btnG=\">Harrison 1995<\/a>). As Adorno notes, Bach is writing his preludes and fugues during a period in which music, as a language and written script, is undergoing a phenomenal transformation in Europe, eventually leading to its commodification during the classical period that follows. Through his preludes and fugues, Bach both embodies this commodification and attempts to resist it, which Adorno reads as the \u2018supreme manifestation of contrapuntalism\u2019 (<a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/scholar?hl=en&amp;as_sdt=0%2C5&amp;q=%22Harrison%22+AND+%22fugue%22+AND+%22colonialism%22&amp;btnG=\">Harrison 1995<\/a>, 62).<\/p>\n<p>Bach\u2019s fugues rely heavily on deliberate dissonances. Despite remaining <a href=\"https:\/\/bachnetwork.co.uk\/ub12\/ub12-white.pdf\">a controversial character in musicology from whom my musings should handle with conscious care,<\/a> Adorno argued Bach calls attention to \u2018the importance of the line [of music] and motivic drive over mere conformity with the rules<strong>\u2019<\/strong> (<a href=\"https:\/\/edisciplinas.usp.br\/pluginfile.php\/5798834\/mod_resource\/content\/1\/Theodor%20W.%20Adorno%20Prisms%20%28Studies%20in%20Contemporary%20German%20Social%20Thought%29.pdf\">Adorno <em>Prisms<\/em> 139<\/a>, cited in <a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/scholar?hl=en&amp;as_sdt=0%2C5&amp;q=%22Harrison%22+AND+%22fugue%22+AND+%22colonialism%22&amp;btnG=\">Harrison 1995<\/a>, 64). In other words, to fundamentally challenge the rationally constituted order of the manuscript of the fugue, itself built upon a strict mathematical canon. In <a href=\"https:\/\/cup.columbia.edu\/book\/musical-elaborations\/9780231073196\"><em>Musical Elaborations<\/em><\/a><em>,<\/em> Said builds upon this understanding to develop the idea of reading contrapuntally as an \u2018atonal ensemble\u2019. According to Said, \u2018We must take into account all sorts of spatial or geographical and rhetorical practices \u2013 inflections, limits, constraints, intrusions, inclusions, prohibitions \u2013 all of them tending to elucidate a complex, uneven topography.\u2019 (<a href=\"https:\/\/monoskop.org\/images\/f\/f9\/Said_Edward_Culture_and_Imperialism.pdf\"><em>Culture and Imperialism<\/em><\/a> 1993, 386).<\/p>\n<p>Drawing from Said\u2019s methods and building on Adorno\u2019s understanding of Bach\u2019s fugue, I have (re)conceived of my method in disordering international law here as an exercise in arranging atonal ensembles. The goal, in so doing, however, is <strong><u>not<\/u><\/strong> to maintain the form of the order (i.e. to maintain the rules which comprise the fugue) by valorising flexibility, adaptation and innovation (<a href=\"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/organising-international-law\/\">Fleur Johns<\/a>), but to open the space for improvisation to move beyond it. In this respect, I have interpreted the authors responding to this <a href=\"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/call-for-reflections-on-ordering-and-disordering\/\">Call for reflecti\u00d6ns<\/a> as each having offered a transgressive reading of the foundational \u2018legal fictions\u2019 that remain the underlying basis of the doctrines of international law and indeed, contemplating moving through these metaphysical questions to an exploration of <a href=\"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/embracing-pataphysics-of-international-law\/\">\u2018pataphysics of international law<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In keeping with Said\u2019s method of incorporating dissonance and innovation, however, and then drawing upon Heathcote\u2019s understanding of split subjectivity, I have reduced these terms by splitting each definition in two as follows:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/state\"><strong>State<\/strong><\/a><strong> : <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/hood\"><strong>hood<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>[state, <em>noun<\/em> in international law a) a permanent population; b) a defined territory; c) government; and d) capacity to enter into relations with the other states. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/highereducation\/books\/international-law-documents\/F22E3069FFF343688B8A0D5755BC795A\/montevideo-convention-on-rights-and-duties-of-states\/7B2A2374C17D2ED5DC2ACF409704F308\">Article 1 Montevideo Convention, 1933<\/a>) ]<\/p>\n<p>[-hood, <em>noun<\/em> suffix, hood- noun prefix, as in hood-lum. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/hoodlum\">hoodlum<\/a> can be anyone from a dangerous outlaw to a young person who&#8217;s just up to no good. The exact origins of the word are not known, but one theory is that the word derives from <em>hudelum<\/em>, an adjective that means &#8220;disorderly&#8221; in dialects of German spoken in and around the region of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/Swabia\">Swabia<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>As a compound word state:hood (nouns), signifies both the suggestion of a stable, static formalistic and reliable institutional and at the same time draws our attention to the latent violence and disordering potential of this institutional prototype.<\/p>\n<p>Rose Sydney Parfitt\u2019s artwork (<em><a href=\"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/reflections-in-art\/\">GoatReindeerPepperTree, 2024<\/a><\/em>) is itself a celebration of <a href=\"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/reflections-in-art\/\">ambiguity<\/a>. Yet, in <a href=\"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/disordering-anthropocentric-hierarchies\/\">Adithi\u2019s Rajesh\u2019s register<\/a>, it illustrates the call to jettison anthropocentric hierarchies for an eco-feminist horizon, in which \u2018the dichotomy between human and nature\u2019 within the state itself is deeply challenged. Additionally, both scholars reminded me of the violence of the state (that hoodlum!) of which I continue to be hyper-aware. They form the subject voice in my fugue.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>Do they in yours?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Response : ability<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>[response, <em>noun<\/em> in international law, a verbal or written answer, which can comprise<br \/>\n1.) counter-argument in an international court or tribunal;<br \/>\n2.) a revival or reconceptualization of a doctrine adapted to the perennial challenge of change (See <a href=\"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/clp\/article\/74\/1\/269\/6386396\">redux)<\/a> or<br \/>\n3) a reparative practice, operating in and through creative processes to engage with systems of oppression in transformative ways (See <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/full\/10.1080\/13200968.2023.2188690\">reparative reading<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>ability, <em>noun<\/em> in international law, possession of the means or skill to practice as an international lawyer, most often associated with markers of privilege, centred on a depiction of \u2018normal\u2019 as embodied by, in, and through an invisible college (see also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/journals\/leiden-journal-of-international-law\/article\/ableism-in-the-college-of-international-lawyers-on-disabling-differences-in-the-professional-field\/176DBB345B9A4246B97D45684A482B71\">ableism<\/a> and note <a href=\"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/book\/8290\/chapter-abstract\/153900259?redirectedFrom=fulltext\">divisible college<\/a>)]<\/p>\n<p>Breaking down \u2018responsibility\u2019 into these separate parts draws attention to the importance of our response to the current legal order and the extent to which understanding it as \u2018liberal\u2019 undermines both certain parties\u2019 ability to respond, and be responded to, within that order.<\/p>\n<p>Gamze Erdem T\u00fcrkelli\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/dreaming-of-disorder-and-imagining-reimagination\/\">\u2018Dreaming of \u2018disorder\u2019\u2019<\/a> is set against Dimitri Van Den Meerssche\u2019s \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/governmentalities-of-disorder\/\">Governmentalities of Disorder<\/a>\u2019 and Fleur Johns\u2019 \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/organising-international-law\/\">Organising International Law<\/a>\u2019, each as a response to international law scholar\u2019s ability to disorder in the contemporary moment, which both Dimitri and Fleur raise doubts about. (Embrace hysteria!). <a href=\"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/dreaming-of-disorder-and-imagining-reimagination\/\">T\u00fcrkelli\u2019s<\/a> renditions of C\u00e9saire <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.17176\/20240725-140734-0\">here<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.17176\/20240725-142125-0\">here<\/a>, is a revelation of the \u2018performative power\u2019 of disordering.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>But is it just a performance to you?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Re : sources<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>[resources, <em>noun<\/em> in international law, plural of the term resource.<br \/>\nresource, <em>noun<\/em>, 1) a stock or supply of money, materials, staff, and other assets that can be drawn on by an international lawyer or international institution in order to function effectively, able to be mobilized only insofar as that lawyer or institution conforms to the will of the state (See: state:hood). 2) Refer, however to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/journals\/american-journal-of-international-law\/article\/customary-international-law-a-third-world-perspective\/DEDB6DB43A3B5A613B68FDBE56E20A20\">subaltern internationalism<\/a> (sources) and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/journals\/leiden-journal-of-international-law\/article\/abs\/international-law-of-jurisdiction-a-twail-perspective\/5976D1BB42088947E9F7E1240F336175\">subaltern internationalism<\/a> (jurisdiction)); Note also <em>contra <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/papers.ssrn.com\/sol3\/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4825022\">tradition and international law<\/a>. ]<\/p>\n<p>Here, rather than breaking apart I am adding to the definition of sources to gesture toward the link between international legal understandings of sources and the extent to which they are tied to a capitalist understanding of \u2018resources\u2019 \u2013 defined as \u2018a stock or supply of <em>money, materials, staff, and other assets<\/em> that can be drawn on by a person or organization in order to function effectively\u2019 (my emphasis).<\/p>\n<p>Drawing from a deep engagement with Marxist scholarship, <a href=\"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/to-do-away-with-all-mediation\/\">Umut \u00d6zsu<\/a> suggests the naivety of my thinking (in the best possibly way) regarding jettisoning the liberal international legal order (or international law) entirely. His sense of ongoing \u2018consciously controlled socialist forms of mediation\u2019 (note: mediated middle paragraph!) that are imperative for social self-actualization sits<\/p>\n<p>in sharp contrast<\/p>\n<p>and yet firmly wedded to<\/p>\n<p>\u2018a body of law built by all, for all\u2019 that <a href=\"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/is-dis-ordering-international-law-the-panacea-to-the-many-frustrations-found-in-critical-international-legal-scholarship\/\">Amaka Vanni<\/a> sees in my demand for the (im)possible. Amaka\u2019s work itself beautifully places me in conversation with <a href=\"https:\/\/scholarhub.ui.ac.id\/ijil\/vol19\/iss2\/3\/\">Mohsen Al Attar<\/a>, a silent contrapuntal line (which would comprise musical rests). Of course, so many other authors in their pieces published this week did the same.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>And then, well, where do we go from here?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Do we need to <u>go<\/u> anywhere, at all?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Juris : generative<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>[juris- (Latin) in international law, of law or of right used in international legal texts to describe different types of law (e.g. juris divini (divine law, divine right)). See also <em>ius<\/em> (naturale, gentium). Note <em>contra <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.elgaronline.com\/edcollchap\/edcoll\/9781802203332\/9781802203332.00008.xml\">post-human<\/a> subjectivity; and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.taylorfrancis.com\/chapters\/edit\/10.4324\/9781032658032-12\/terraqueous-feminisms-international-law-sea-gina-heathcote\">related conceptions of law<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.taylorfrancis.com\/chapters\/edit\/10.4324\/9781032658032-12\/terraqueous-feminisms-international-law-sea-gina-heathcote\">]. <\/a><\/p>\n<p>generative, adjective, in international law, 1) relating to processes capable of production and reproduction in law, that enable a fecundity of meaning and interpretation (See: <a href=\"https:\/\/heinonline.org\/HOL\/Page?handle=hein.journals\/hlr97&amp;div=13&amp;g_sent=1&amp;casa_token=3y6kU1XYhJsAAAAA:Y0VJIc_nUWN9qMxQGWoE_Dw5_SB0cqsjOdXhqbWQ0vBshX7DCdEg5xwidsDL8rdR-kVANfC9rQ&amp;collection=journals\">Nomos and Narrative<\/a>); 2) an underground anarchic force in law, providing a productive range of immeasurable discretion (See: <a href=\"https:\/\/bpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com\/campuspress.yale.edu\/dist\/1\/2391\/files\/2017\/12\/06-Moten-Jurisgenerative-Grammar-2fznrrv.pdf\">Jurisgenerative grammar<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>Extending further the now well-known critique of jurisdiction as reduced to the ability \u2018to speak the law\u2019 toward an understanding of law that incorporates and connotes international law\u2019s allegiance toward production and reproduction. Yet, resisting this idea.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/palestine-israel-and-the-disordering-of-international-law\/\">Michelle Burghis-Kasthala<\/a> is in dialogue with <a href=\"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/re-de-composing-international-law\/\">Marie Petersmann<\/a> in this atonal ensemble. Returning us to <a href=\"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/reflections-in-art\/\">Rose<\/a> (or does she?), Michelle, speaks to both the state violence and current state <em>of<\/em> violence. And while her calls for a \u2018no-state solution\u2019 is one <em>I<\/em> agree with, I read Michelle echoing to go slow, to remain present in the mediation moment, because we can only go <em>through<\/em> it, as paths beyond or around it are unavailable \u2013 \u2018it\u2019 being our currently historical juncture, for better or worse.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/re-de-composing-international-law\/\">Marie\u2019s piece<\/a> adds another contrapuntal line to the work of <a href=\"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/palestine-israel-and-the-disordering-of-international-law\/\">Michelle<\/a>. While Michelle imagines a \u2018no state\u2019 solution which suggests that something else <em>is<\/em> possible, Marie so carefully articulates what I was trying to do all along, that is to <a href=\"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/re-de-composing-international-law\/\">re\/de\/compose<\/a>, international law. This thought was always lingering in the background of my work. That she could see and retrieve it feels eery, almost psychic. Somewhere in the deep recesses of my subconscious, disordering international law is always tied to music, to rhythm, to melody \u2013 and as such to <strong>composition<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Counterpointing the Contrapuntal<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u2018Fugue\u2019 itself, however, has a double meaning. In psychiatry, a fugue is \u2018a loss of awareness of one\u2019s identity, often coupled with flight from one\u2019s usual environment, associated with certain forms of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?sca_esv=bf721e085700f33c&amp;sca_upv=1&amp;rlz=1C5CHFA_enGB727GB768&amp;sxsrf=ADLYWILDWJ7didRYbKzRnjSItAh3_SbvjA:1721829354616&amp;q=hysteria&amp;si=ACC90nwZKElgOcNXBU934ENhMNgqY41hDsbUng4o-p2XKC-Ev3YMzhakIAAaWRlEizDa57YSuDnpchmwEEFUvcQV_6Lx6GiZmnSR9VRvpz-3lLm7Rj5Vy40%3D&amp;expnd=1&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=2ahUKEwjRyK6Y6r-HAxV0RkEAHQpLCgYQyecJegQIJhAe\">hysteria<\/a>\u2019. Building on Said\u2019s work then, I seek, further, to incorporate feminist and queer interpretations of the fugue state. This remains a constant reminder, as I am drawing out these lines of fugal dis:order, that the authors themselves can claim the space for hysteria at any moment \u2013 both in their own work and in my own \u2013 which I encourage. As Maria Aristodemou has recently brought out in Gerry Simpson\u2019s work, hystericization \u2018retreats from law\u2019s paradigmatic quest for answers and certainty and opens its door to doubt\u2019 (<a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1093\/ejil\/chae024\">EJIL 2024<\/a>). Similarly, the disordering that takes place here seeks to rest in the space of doubt, rather than provide glib answers to what remain complex questions now presenting themselves to the field.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, because I do not wish for the authors\u2019 voices to be constrained by fugal techniques in the composed epigraphs, I have further suggested for each pair or in one case, a triplet different pieces of music that are <em>not<\/em> fugues. (I would argue that sustaining resistance and dissonance remains central to any fugal composition, and my understanding of disorder). Each artist with which the authors are paired embraces dynamism and draws from different understandings of technique, harmony and composition.<\/p>\n<p>I begin and end with two contemporary composers, Nithin Sawney and Maya Youssef. Nithin Sawney\u2019s work, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Ut5tmVJGrL4\"><em>Homelands<\/em><\/a> combines a depth of engagement with Indian classical music (both the raga and tala) with the composer\u2019s own ingenuity and free form. Neither raga nor tala have equivalents in Western music, but both are mathematically precise artforms in their own right, hence presenting different kinds of order. Maya Youssef\u2019s work, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=XWry_l8zUHU\"><em>Breakthrough<\/em><\/a>, itself written in celebration of the unbreakable human spirit witnessed in and through refugees from the war in Syria, is played on the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Qanun_(instrument)\">Qanun<\/a> (literally \u2018law\u2019 in Arabic). The Qanun is a monophonic instrument (hence itself a counterpoint to the idea of polyphony), with a rich scale that surpasses the piano. It has four levers (or tones) for each note (in the Arabic version of the instrument) and nine (in the Turkish version), where the piano only has two \u2013 a flat and a sharp. Additionally, the choice of Ana Tijoux, Janka Nabay and Yothu Yindi speak to artists mixing genres and styles of music. In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=O6t--PD86sM\">Ni\u00f1x<\/a>, Tijoux combines urban hip-hop and Latin contemporary to respond to the idea of non-dualism with a meditation on nature; in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=uLKjFQYl_Go\">Sabanoh<\/a> (literally: \u2018we own this land\u2019), Nabay combined traditional Temne bubu music from Sierra Leone with dub-beat influences in response to the civil war; and in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?sca_esv=7035ff6bfa45f4a8&amp;sca_upv=1&amp;rlz=1C5CHFA_enGB727GB768&amp;sxsrf=ADLYWII9TXaChFeK0eC8bq7v5fdGmrCUHg:1722522947553&amp;q=Treaty+Yothu+Yindi+25+years&amp;tbm=vid&amp;source=lnms&amp;fbs=AEQNm0Aa4sjWe7Rqy32pFwRj0UkWd8nbOJfsBGGB5IQQO6L3J_86uWOeqwdnV0yaSF-x2joQcoZ-0Q2Udkt2zEybT7HdKA2_zrxsB3fvt1aIuIEp4Ow6kQE6IXXy1f8DCh7NEd8iMNL-Ed6xCQzbDyNmtL2vrh2-CSSbo0sbvl29KKREFqvraN7mnyOxungc27pAQn1-26eO&amp;sa=X&amp;sqi=2&amp;ved=2ahUKEwi37Z-DgtSHAxUu1AIHHWnFMOoQ0pQJegQIDRAB&amp;biw=1827&amp;bih=853&amp;dpr=2#fpstate=ive&amp;vld=cid:50182652,vid:yFl3lzuZQUI,st:0\">Treaty<\/a>, Yothu Yindi combines the traditional playing of the Aboriginal didgeridoo with Indigenous rock music. All of the artists chosen have a political message in their work, speaking to the themes of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=kZ_dp4OLbuM\">identity, exile, nuclear power,<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=zy4y4DV5zVI\">war, migration<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=T2bpAty2peg\">hope, freedom<\/a>, our relationship to nature, and the <a href=\"https:\/\/theworld.org\/stories\/2024\/06\/26\/she-transcends-french-chilean-rapper-ana-tijoux-finds-hope-and-meaning-in-vida\">end of the world<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>And that\u2019s where I end. <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/authors_\/reflectioens\/\"><em>For now<\/em><\/a><em>. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>But this is a work in pr&#8212;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>!!!<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>I\u2019ll be back.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>* The author\u2019s definition: Ovan (adjective): 1. Of, or relating to, or consisting of the ova, or female eggs. 2. A ground-breaking, fertile and richly creative work, contributing to the birth of later developments.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fugue Liberal Legal Order Re:dux, Re:boot, Re:turn. \u201cThe liberal international legal order is dead. Long live the liberal international legal order!\u201d This, it seems, remains the paradox of our contemporary moment. As Michelle Burgis-Kasthala inferred this week, and I have felt acutely, the liberal international legal order died in the months after 7 October 2023. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6639],"tags":[5218,7474],"authors":[7472],"article-categories":[3572],"doi":[],"class_list":["post-22985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-critical-approaches","tag-disorder","authors-michelle-staggs-kelsall","article-categories-symposium"],"acf":{"subline":""},"meta_box":{"doi":"10.17176\/20240802-151955-0"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22985"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22995,"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22985\/revisions\/22995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22985"},{"taxonomy":"authors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/authors?post=22985"},{"taxonomy":"article-categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article-categories?post=22985"},{"taxonomy":"doi","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/doi?post=22985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}