Abstract
This short essay focuses on the involvement of Muslim-majority state leadership in the pre-World War II development of international humanitarian law (IHL), including their appeals to Islamic norms. This historical snapshot reveals how national leaders joined debates during conferences leading up to the revised 1949 Geneva Conventions, the heart of modern IHL. Such accounts complicate our assumptions about the cultural and national composition of public international law as “Western,” and shed light on global hierarchies involving modern Arab and Muslim states and their investment in such norms. The essay argues by example that, ultimately, in Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) more emphasis is needed on history, traditions of governance, and states’ distinctive responses to macrostructural pressures—rather than on static notions of identity, resistant narratives, and presumed shared ideologies. TWAIL seeks alternatives to international law’s presumed oppressive role in Western-non-Western power dynamics, and new ideas and opportunities for a “third-world” legal scholarship beyond current global underdevelopment dynamics.
Highlights
ISLAMIC CONTRIBUTIONS TO INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW: RECALIBRATING TWAIL APPROACHES FOR EXISTING CONTRIBUTIONS. This short essay focuses on the involvement of Muslim-majority state leadership in the pre-World War II development of international humanitarian law (IHL), including their appeals to Islamic norms.[1]
The essay argues by example that, in Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL)[2] more emphasis is needed on history, traditions of governance, and states’ distinctive responses to macrostructural pressures—rather than on static notions of identity, resistant narratives, and presumed shared ideologies
Empirically, one sees an increase over time in Muslim state conference participation, a trend that continues until the 1960s, after which many states—partly through the Organization of Islamic Cooperation—begin to develop culturally-specific interpretations of international law with complex motives and results
Summary
This short essay focuses on the involvement of Muslim-majority state leadership in the pre-World War II development of international humanitarian law (IHL), including their appeals to Islamic norms.[1] This historical snapshot reveals how national leaders joined debates during conferences leading up to the revised 1949 Geneva Conventions, the heart of modern IHL. Such accounts complicate our assumptions about the cultural and national composition of public international law as “Western,” and shed light on global hierarchies involving modern Arab and Muslim states and their investment in such norms. The Third World has generally viewed international law as a regime and discourse of domination and subordination, not resistance and liberation. SOC. & HIST. 565 (1981); Vicky Randall, Using and Abusing the Concept of the Third World, 25 THIRD WORLD Q. 41 (2004). 5 But see, Muhammad Munir, Islamic International Law, 20 HAMDARD ISLAMICUS 37 (2012); ANTONY ANGHIE, IMPERIALISM, SOVEREIGNTY & THE MAKING OF INTERNATIONAL LAW (2005); SURYA PRAKASH SINYA, LEGAL POLYCENTRICITY & INTERNATIONAL LAW (1996); ARNULF BECKER LORCA, MESTIZO INTERNATIONAL LAW (2014)
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