Towards a History of the Decolonization of International Law. An Introduction to the Special Issue

Abstract

After an age of excitement of historians and lawyers with renewed interest in the imperial origins and settings of international law, recent scholarship has begun to turn to the history of the field’s decolonization. The Third World Approaches to International Law movement, of course, arose out of and continues to call for a decolonization of international law. But the fact is that, as of today, we know very little in historical terms about how this transition began. The historiography of the achievements, forms, and personnel – as well as the legacy and limits – of the attempted creation of a genuinely postcolonial international law remains in its infancy.