Upcoming Event

January 23, 2005  

"Imperialism and International Law"   

by Tony Anghie, Professor of Law, University of Utah.  

Tony Anghie is Professor at the S. J. Quinney School of Law at the University of Utah where he teaches various subjects in the international law curriculum. He is a graduate of Monash University, Australia, and Harvard Law School. He has written articles dealing with the history of international law, international financial institutions, human rights, globalization and colonialism. He has served as a Senior Fellow at Harvard Law School and Visiting Professor at the University of Tokyo. His book, Imperialism, Sovereignty and the Making of International Law, is forthcoming from Cambridge University Press.


Synopsis of Presentation:

The topic of Imperialism has now become a major preoccupation of international relations and international law scholars, who are debating a range of issues arising from the war on terror waged by the United States, the doctrine of pre-emption, and, particularly, the war in Iraq. What is the relationship between the war on terror and imperialism? What is the impact of the war on terror on the international system? On the United Nations? Is imperialism necessary in order to protect against new threats? How should we understand the term imperialism in the first place? Further, the powerful phenomenon of globalization raises a different but related set of concerns regarding imperialism and international law, this time in the arena of international economic law. Institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization exercise extensive control over the affairs of developing states, raising questions about the legitimacy and accountability of these institutions.

Rather than address these contemporary issues directly, this presentation attempts to begin by providing a historical approach to the changing relationship between international law and imperialism. This approach may enable us to understand better the debates taking place now, the efforts made by the United Nations and other institutions to respond to some of these challenges, and the issues confronting both the United States and the broader global community.

References and Resources:
Major U.S. journals such as Foreign Affairs and Foreign Policy have carried articles dealing with the broad theme of imperialism. A sampling of some relevant articles:


Eliot Cohen, History and Hyperpower, Foreign Affairs, July-August, 2004.
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20040701faessay83406/eliot-a-cohen/history-and-the-hyperpower.html

Robert Tucker and David Hendrickson, The Sources of American Legitimacy, Foreign Affairs, November-December 2004, 
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20041101faessay83603/robert-w-tucker-david-c-hendrickson/the-sources-of-american-legitimacy.html

Niall Ferguson, The Reluctant Empire
http://www-hoover.stanford.edu/publications/digest/043/ferguson1.html

B.S.Chimni, International Institutions Today, A Global Imperial State in the Making, in The European Journal of International Law, http://www.ejil.org/journal/Vol15/No1/art1.html