Skouteris, Thomas --- "Progress" [2019] ELECD 233; in d’Aspremont, Jean; Singh, Sahib (eds), "Concepts for International Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) 719

Book Title: Concepts for International Law

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

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN: 9781783474677

Section: Chapter 47

Section Title: Progress

Author(s): Skouteris, Thomas

Number of pages: 11

Abstract/Description:

This chapter examines the manner in which the idea of progress is inscribed in arguments about international law. The chapter makes two central points. The first is that the impact of the idea of progress in international law should be measured not only in the context of paradigmatic narratives of progress but also against the pervasiveness of more prosaic uses. The second is that any argument that implicates progress, from the uppercase to the lowercase and back, is theoretical ‘all the way down’. While it may be hard to forsake the idea of progress altogether, the chapter argues that it may be even harder to defend as something other than a tired trope of legitimation.