International Law in Public Debate

A history of international law in public debates and its resulting popular language of international law.

Madelaine Chiam (Author)

9781108499293, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 9 December 2021

240 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 1.9 cm, 0.485 kg

'In these remarkable pages, the idea of 'public' international law comes bursting through with new and unexpected meaning as Madelaine Chiam expertly sets to work on charting its life beyond the usual sanctuaries of operation-such as diplomatic correspondence, international litigation and jurisprudence, governmental memoranda and domestic legislation. Here, it is a very public 'public international law' - otherwise called 'popular international law' - that emerges from the close and admirable dissections of public argumentation that accompanied the First World War, the Vietnam War and the Iraq War. It is a superbly rewarding study full of discernment and bracing insight.' Dino Kritsiotis, Co-Director of the Nottingham International Law and Security Centre (NILSC), University of Nottingham

Public debates in the language of international law have occurred across the 20th and 21st centuries and have produced a popular form of international law that matters for international practice. This book analyses the people who used international law and how they used it in debates over Australia's participation in the 2003 Iraq War, the Vietnam War and the First World War. It examines texts such as newspapers, parliamentary debates, public protests and other expressions of public opinion. It argues that these interventions produced a form of international law that shares a vocabulary and grammar with the expert forms of that language and distinct competences in order to be persuasive. This longer history also illustrates a move from the use of international legal language as part of collective justifications to the use of international law as an autonomous justification for state action.

1. International law in public debate
2 A 'popular' international law
3. Public debate in 2003: The Iraq War
4. Public debate in 1965–1966: the Vietnam War
5. Public debate in 1916: the First World War
6. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: International organisations & institutions [LBBU], Treaties & other sources of international law [LBBC], Public international law [LBB]