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Sinclair, Adriana 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6853-0759
(2021)
Why we should see international law as a structure: Unpicking international law’s ontology and agency.
International Relations, 35 (2).
pp. 216-235.
ISSN 0047-1178
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Abstract
This article identifies how three dominant ideas of international law (as a process, an institution and a practice) see its agency, concluding that all three share a reluctance to see international law as doing anything more than enabling the operation of other actors, forces or structures. This article argues that we should see international law as a structure because it possesses both the surface structure of rules, principles, processes, personnel and material elements of the international legal system and a deep structure of values that sits deep within our subconscious. As Shklar’s idea of legalism shows us, legalism plays a powerful role in shaping all our understandings of ourselves and the world that surrounds us. Seeing international law as a structure enables us to see how it locates actors within a social hierarchy and how it behaves in similar ways to recognised structures like capitalism and racism.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | agency,international law,law as an actor,law’s agency,legalism,structure,political science and international relations ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3300/3320 |
| Faculty \ School: | Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of Politics, Philosophy, Language and Communication Studies (former - to 2024) |
| UEA Research Groups: | Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Political, Social and International Studies Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Critical Global Politics |
| Related URLs: | |
| Depositing User: | LivePure Connector |
| Date Deposited: | 22 May 2020 00:23 |
| Last Modified: | 05 Nov 2024 00:45 |
| URI: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/75282 |
| DOI: | 10.1177/0047117820916223 |
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