Rasulov, Akbar --- "Imperialism" [2019] ELECD 213; in d’Aspremont, Jean; Singh, Sahib (eds), "Concepts for International Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) 422

Book Title: Concepts for International Law

Editor(s): d’Aspremont, Jean; Singh, Sahib

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN: 9781783474677

Section: Chapter 27

Section Title: Imperialism

Author(s): Rasulov, Akbar

Number of pages: 25

Abstract/Description:

The concept of imperialism represents one of the most significant nodal points in the broader structure of the contemporary international law discourse, a marker of a complex discursive space, the intellectual platform for the actualization of international law's various ideological struggles. How we construct the concept of imperialism, how we narrate the relationship between it and the rest of the ideational landscape of international law, in the final analysis, always acts as a statement about where exactly within the discipline’s internal political space we prefer to make our ideological home. In the contemporary usage, the international legal discourse about imperialism is structured around four basic narratives. Each of these narratives presupposes its own, fairly distinct conception of what international lawyers should understand by imperialism and how it relates to international law. Drawing on the methodologies of critical narratology and Critical Legal Studies, this chapter proposes to trace the general contours of each of these four narratives and explore their underlying theoretical logics and conceptual architectures.