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Modest International Law: COVID-19, International Legal Responses, and Depoliticization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 October 2020

Francisco-José Quintana  and
Justina Uriburu
Francisco-José Quintana
Affiliation:
PhD in Law Candidate and Gates Cambridge Scholar, University of Cambridge. We are indebted to Alejandro Chehtman, Luis Eslava, Sebastián Guidi, Nico Krisch, Sarah Nouwen, Phil Saengkrai, and Marina Veličković for their insightful comments.
Justina Uriburu
Affiliation:
PhD in International Law Candidate, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies.
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Abstract

In this Essay, we analyze two sets of international legal responses to the COVID-19 pandemic: the academic discussion on state responsibility; and the deployment of international law as a tool for resistance. We argue that both approaches made significant contributions but concealed the role of the discipline in the production of the conditions that led to the pandemic and its unequal impact. These interventions reflect a “modest international law”; an understanding of the discipline that hinders change and is ethically weak. We contend that repoliticization can help reclaim international law's ambition and responsibility.

Type
The International Legal Order and the Global Pandemic
Information
American Journal of International Law , Volume 114 , Issue 4 , October 2020 , pp. 687 - 697
Copyright
Copyright © 2020 by The American Society of International Law

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References

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13 Charlesworth, supra note 1.

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22 We thank Nico Krisch for pressing us on this point.

23 Charlesworth, supra note 1, at 391.

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30 European Commission v. Republic of Poland, C-619/18, ECLI:EU:C:2019:531, Judgment of 24 June 2019.

31 What Should the EU Do About Hungary?, Politico (Apr. 14, 2020), at https://www.politico.eu/article/what-should-the-eu-do-about-hungary-coronavirus-viktor-orban.

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33 See International Justice Resource Center, COVID-19 Guidance from Supranational Human Rights Bodies, at https://ijrcenter.org/covid-19-guidance-from-supranational-human-rights-bodies.

34 Organization of American States, SACROI COVID-19, at http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/SACROI_COVID19.

35 Bruno Latour, La crise sanitaire incite à se préparer à la mutation climatique, Le Monde (Mar. 25, 2020), at https://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2020/03/25/la-crise-sanitaire-incite-a-se-preparer-a-la-mutation-climatique_6034312_3232.html.

36 Id.

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42 However, a forceful critical argument has been made in favor of an “ethos of modesty” in international law. See Nouwen, Sara Kendall & Sarah M. H., Speaking of Legacy: Toward an Ethos of Modesty at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, 110 AJIL 212 (2016)Google Scholar.

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51 See, e.g., TWAILR:EXTRA, TWAIL-Related Commentary on the Coronavirus Pandemic (May 13, 2020), at https://twailr.com/twail-related-commentary-on-the-coronavirus-pandemic; Afronomics Symposia on COVID-19, Afronomics L., at https://www.afronomicslaw.org/symposia.

52 See Luis Eslava, Local Space, Global Life: The Everyday Operation of International Law and Development (2015).

53 See B. S. Chimni, International Law and World Order: A Critique of Contemporary Approaches 12 (2d ed. 2017).

54 When seen through the lens of necessity, in turn, current arrangements are not celebrated, but subject to structural critique.

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