What Role for International Law in a Politics of Civility?

Abstract

This essay questions the role of international law in Etienne Balibar's suggestion of a politics of civility to reintroduce the issue of equality and the horizon for political action. It explores some of the reasons why insisting on international law may have adverse consequences if one’s aim is to break away from the “extreme violence” produced by humanity’s biopolitical division between zones of life and zones of death. First, it looks at Hannah Arendt’s assessment of human rights and the notion of a “right to have rights” as a radical critique of the foundation of rights. Next, it focuses on the international legal “turn to ethics” and the implications this brings to the discourse of international law. Finally, the debate over “whether international law is really law” will be used as an example of the unease of those who insist on international law as the basis of a politics of civility.