CIL215 | International Law and Developing States

The emergence of the South-South solidarity and Global South dialogue promises to change the international world order and contribute in the making and content of international law. Similar such attempts were made by the newly independent countries in 1970s to create a ‘New International Economic Order (NIEO)’. This was the time when the process of decolonization catalysed an active participation of developing states. These efforts continued to exist despite the resistance from the western bloc through a set of international norms and structures. With the increasing global inequality and credibility of the terms and notions such as ‘Global South’ and ‘Third World’ are constantly questioned, the changes continue, for instance, the effort to revive NIEO through NNIEO.

The course ‘International Law and Developing States’ builds on the primary understanding of Mainstream International law to interrogate its nature and content. It explores the international legal order, its developments and contents from alternative approaches and from the perspective of the ‘Global Commons’. The course goes beyond identifying the Eurocentric nature and imperialistic character of international law to study and demonstrate the process of decolonization and attempts of the developing countries to engage with the international legal order and transform it. This will include an historical account of colonization and decolonization; theorizing the relationship between colonization and imperialism with international law; reimagining contemporary norms of international law in the direction of making them democratic, plural and egalitarian in nature.

Choice of material: The primary material the course relies on are the declarations, treaties, conventions, UNGA resolutions and case studies. The secondary sources are mostly the scholarly debates rooted in the alternative approaches to international law.