Description
This paper reconsiders the dominant representation of international law within the English School account of international society. International law as a primary institution of international society is typically strongly connected to defining, creating, and upholding order. Stronger international law is routinely seen as enhancing order and, consequently, improving the prosects of a more just international society. During a decade or more of debates about the crisis of the ‘rules-based’ or ‘liberal’ international order (LIO), this position has become more deeply entrenched. The paper draws on Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) and decolonial social theory to argue for international law as an agent of chaos in international society. Starting from a key moment in the crisis of international order, the 2011 NATO intervention in Libya, the paper argues the crisis reveals how international law creates and embeds important pathologies in the LIO engendering chaos. From there, the paper argues international law perpetuates instability and resistance to ordering efforts that challenge its pathologies. Finally, the paper explores why international law is alienated from the needs and interests of a diverse humanity. International law as a bedrock primary institution of international society in which law reflects universal imperatives and points towards progressive outcomes, will disappear. The English school’s embrace of international law as an essential and progressive primary institution of international society and essential for order falls away as its character as an agent of chaos comes into focus.
