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The Teaching of (Another) International Law: Critical Realism and the Question of Agency and Structure

Eslava, Luis (2020) The Teaching of (Another) International Law: Critical Realism and the Question of Agency and Structure. The Law Teacher, 54 (3). pp. 368-384. ISSN 0306-9400. E-ISSN 1943-0353. (doi:10.1080/03069400.2019.1697590) (KAR id:79139)

Abstract

In this article I explore the potential of a critical realist approach to the teaching of international law. Critical realist scholars have advanced a compelling account of the importance of paying attention – in designing educational curricula, delivering materials and classroom interactions – to the close relationship between agency and structure, a relationship that has also come to preoccupy international legal scholars. Recent academic work, especially that developed by critical international legal scholars, has revealed and insisted upon the structural dimension of the international legal order. According to these scholars, this dimension should be taken into account in order to explain and challenge some of the ways in which international law has historically constituted, and continues to constitute, our persistently violent and unequal material and social world at all levels, from international to local spaces, and from collective to individual subjectivities. If the aim is to generate another global order, and another international law, teaching international law today requires us to learn how to negotiate the structure and agency divide. The work of critical realists has the potential to help teachers of international law create a more emancipatory learning experience for their students in order to face this crucial task.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1080/03069400.2019.1697590
Uncontrolled keywords: Critical Realism; International Law; Structure and Agency
Subjects: K Law
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > Kent Law School
Depositing User: Luis Eslava
Date Deposited: 04 Dec 2019 12:13 UTC
Last Modified: 04 Mar 2024 19:42 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/79139 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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