Tuesday, October 11, 2016 - 12:30pm to 1:45pm
Location: 
Solarium (room FA2) Falconer Hall - 84 Queen's Park

Critical Analysis of Law Workshop Series

presents

Sikander Ahmed Shah
Lahore University of Management Sciences

The Hegemonic Structuring of International Law and its Contribution to Conflict (in Pakistan)

Tuesday, October 11, 2016
12:30 – 2:00
Solarium (room FA2), Falconer Hall
84 Queen’s Park

This paper attempts to outline the weaknesses inherent in International Law and identify the ways in which international relations and international law are structured to encourage, and in some situations cause, conflict. Drawing upon Marxist, Feminist, Postcolonial and Third World Approach scholarship, this paper will argue that the status quo of International Law has an ideological leaning, which is evident in its employment of concepts such as sovereignty, human rights, terrorism and conflict, etc. It is suggested that this tilt is incommensurate with the legal, political and social realities of countries like Pakistan and so becomes the root of conflict in these places.  The first part of the paper will briefly lay down the theoretical and philosophical foundations of the critique. The second will describe the skewed nature and the impact of international law norms on the political economy of conflict, by bringing about a discussion of the origin and development of each norm. Cumulatively, this paper will aim to provide both an internal and external critique of international law and its influence on state institutions. The state of Pakistan will often be used an example to test this hypothesis. 

Sikander Ahmed Shah is an Associate Professor of Public International Law at the Lahore University of Management Sciences in Lahore, Pakistan. Between 2012 and 2013, he served as the Legal Advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan. He is the author of the book “International Law and Drone Strikes in Pakistan: The Legal and Socio-political Aspects” (2015) published by Routledge, which deals with the treatment of drone strikes under International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law.

 

For more workshop information, please contact Nadia Gulezko at n.gulezko@utoronto.ca