The Third World intellectual in praxis: confrontation, participation, or operation behind enemy lines?

Abstract

In his closing keynote address for the TWAIL Cairo Conference, Professor Georges Abi-Saab engages with the conference theme ‘On Praxis and the Intellectual’ by considering the diverse roles that can be played by Third World international law intellectuals in trying to transform theory into social practice. He commences with an overview of the Third World’s engagement with international law thus far in the form of a ‘three act psychodrama’. Following from this, he explores the meanings of the terms ‘intellectual’ and ‘praxis’, noting that not all international lawyers are the former, and breaking the latter down into several stages in the spectrum between reflection and action. Professor Abi-Saab concludes with some examples of praxis from personal experience, including as a professor, teacher, and scholar of international law, ghostwriting for the UN Secretary-General, participation in country delegations, and as judge and arbitrator in numerous courts and tribunals. Through these examples he illustrates some of the different tactics available to the Third World intellectual including confrontation, participation, or operation ‘behind enemy lines’.

Keywords:

• Third World
• international law
• praxis
• strategy
• tactics
• TWAIL

Notes

1. Abi-Saab, ‘Newly Independent States and the Scope of Domestic Jurisdiction.’

2. Ibid; Abi-Saab, ‘Newly Independent States and the Rules of International Law’; Abi-Saab, ‘Peaceful Change and Integration’; Abi-Saab, ‘Inner Wandel Internationale Rechtsordnung’; Abi-Saab, ‘Third World and the Future.’

3. Abi-Saab, ‘Newly Independent States and the Rules of International Law.’

4. Anand, “The Role of the ‘New.’”

5. Syatauw, Newly Established Asian States.

6. Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany, Article 67(1).

7. Gramsci, Prison Notebooks, 9.

8. Ibid., 4.

9. Shorter Oxford English Dictionary.

10. See Note 2 as well as subsequent footnotes addressing specific topics.

11. Abi-Saab, ‘War of National Liberation.’

12. Abi-Saab, ‘Legal Formulation of Right to Development.’

13. United Nations General Assembly, ‘New International Economic Order.’

14. Yusuf, Pan Africanism and International Law.

15. See Kohen’s locus classicus, Possession contestée et souveraineté territoriale.

16. See Note 11.

17. Taba Arbitration, 20 UN Report of International Arbitral Awards 1–118.

18. Legal Consequences, ICJ Report 3.

19. Legality of the Threat, ICJ Report 46.

20. I later published this pleading, with a commentary on the Advisory Opinion, in Abi-Saab, ‘Court and the Bomb.’

21. Tadic Case, ICTY, Case No IT-94–1-AR72, Decision of 2 October 1995. For an evaluation of the contribution of the Tribunal to the development of international humanitarian law, see my Separate Opinion attached to the above decision. See also Abi-Saab, ‘International Criminal Tribunals.’

22. Frontier Dispute, ICJ Report 554.

23. Territorial Dispute, ICJ Report 6.

24. Appellate Body Report, Brazil – Measures Affecting Imports of Retreaded Tyres, WT/DS332/AB/R, adopted 17 December 2007, DSR 2007:IV, 1527; Appellate Body Report, European Communities – Conditions for the Granting of Tariff Preferences to Developing Countries, WT/DS246/AB/R, adopted 20 April 2004, DSR 2004:III, 925.

25. Yusuf, Legal Aspects Trade Preferences.