A Field Day With Fritz: Introduction to the Symposium

Abstract

The Status of Law begins with the suspicion ‘that “law” might have become the problem rather than the solution, and this problem requires further analysis.’ Given that law is a social construct, Kratochwil invites us to turn to the sites where this construction takes place. To bring the many constitutions and contestations of law to the fore, he conjures theoretical sparring partners to engage in nine meditations. The genius of this Symposium consists in inviting nine colleagues, each engaging with a different meditation, and inviting a tenth colleague to add this introduction as a way to engage the engagement. By doing practice on practice the Symposium does full justice Kratochwil’s move towards looking at the practice ‘in the middle of things.’ The resulting field day with Fritz is a piece of intellectual mastery compiled by ‘spirited members of the republic of letters’ that carries the reader along on a journey that reveals and addresses Kratochwil’s suspicions about the problem with law. In the end, we know more through sharing the problem and partaking in the joy of addressing it. In a nutshell, the Status of Law engages in a series of mediations that invite us to engage with that predicament by using our academic tools as best as we can (no need to get anxious). The Symposium’s engagements show precisely that: the ability and readiness to actually hear what Kratochwil is saying. By engaging with the engagements, the readership of this Symposium will draw their own conclusions about the promises of international law (and the discipline of International Law) despite the predicaments that Kratochwil addressed so wisely and carefully. Yet, they must engage themselves to get to the bottom of it all. Indeed, ‘Kratochwil is too smart to show us “the way” but he gives us tools to assess our journey and options — perhaps also by comparing our itineraries.’ And for that, the invitation is to start in the middle. That plunge must be taken individually. By offering their respective academic practice of embracing or eschewing the ‘midst’ which lies at the centre of Kratochwil’s grounding engagement with (legal) norms through critical pragmatism, this Symposium nicely sketches the ‘site’ where to do precisely that: generate knowledge through engagement with others.