Abstract
Professor David Kennedy’s 2018 Montesquieu Lecture considers the role of expert legal knowledge in our political and economic life. As politicians, citizens, and experts engage one another on a technocratic terrain of irresolvable argument and uncertain knowledge, a world of astonishing inequality and injustice is born. Kennedy draws on his experience working with international lawyers, human rights advocates, policy professionals, economic development specialists, military lawyers, and humanitarian strategists to describe the conflicts, unexamined assumptions, and assertions of power and entitlement that lie at the center of expert rule. He explores how we can harness expert knowledge to remake an unjust world.
Highlights
Professor David Kennedy’s 2018 Montesquieu Lecture considers the role of expert legal knowledge in our political and economic life
Citizens, and experts engage one another on a technocratic terrain of irresolvable argument and uncertain knowledge, a world of astonishing inequality and injustice is born. Kennedy draws on his experience working with international lawyers, human rights advocates, policy professionals, economic development specialists, military lawyers, and humanitarian strategists to describe the conflicts, unexamined assumptions, and assertions of power and entitlement that lie at the center of expert rule
National governments find themselves gridlocked and disempowered, vulnerable to far away decisions that take them by surprise
Summary
It is hard not to be nostalgic for the idea of a global order, centered in the North Atlantic, vouchsafed by a network of legal and institutional arrangements. The order offered remedies – another conference, a treaty, technological innovations, corporate social responsibility, social justice activism None of these remedies were quite up to the task, we could be reassured by a shared recognition, in lagging towns of the American Midwest as much as in emerging markets, that were the North Atlantic center not to hold, there would be no reason to expect these problems to get any easier.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
