Symposium: Teaching and Researching
International Law – Global Perspectives

Jointly hosted by Afronomicslaw and NUS Centre for International Law
Convenors: Antony Anghie, James Thuo Gathii, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe and Titilayo Adebola

[Note: Updates on publication essays can be found at Afronomicslaw symposia page.]

The NUS Centre for International Law recently released its report on ‘Teaching and Researching International Law in Asia’ (TRILA) on the back of its inaugural conference in 2018. The TRILA Report presents a comprehensive empirical survey of the state of international law teaching and research in Asia. While the Report is focused on Asia, it is intended to contribute to the growing global discussion on teaching and researching international law around the world.

In this online Symposium, Afronomicslaw and NUS Centre for International Law bring together junior and senior scholars and researchers from across the world to critically and comparatively reflect on important issues that we, as academics, face daily, such as teaching approaches and the challenges and opportunities the teaching of international law that technology presents. This rich set of essays also helpfully reflect on ways that we could consider collectively reassessing the international law canon currently centered on the experiences of the Global North. Needless to point out, the essays also take into account the drastic changes that the COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated both in our teaching of international law and in the remaking of institutional priorities.

In particular, this Symposium foregrounds the first-hand account of personal experiences and reflections in what we believe is one of the genuinely cross-continental conversation about the teaching of international law. Many of the essays are experientially grounded thoughtful experiences and interspersed with aspirations about how to be more effective and contextually relevant teachers and scholars of international law.

This collaboration between Afronomicslaw and NUS Centre for International Law therefore reflects the desires of the emerging generation of international law teachers, particularly in Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America. There are also contribution from scholars and teachers in the Global North. The insights contained in these essays will hopefully inspire and inform the teaching and research of international law so that our discipline can better meet the challenges and opportunities the authors so intentionally and helpfully put together for us.

As joint editors of this Symposium, we thank the authors for writing these excellent essays. We hope the authors remain open to continue this discussion not only through the social media platforms and comment feature of this blog throughout the symposium, but also to possible follow-up projects. We also thank Amiel Ian Valdez and Jing Min Tan of the NUS CIL for their terrific assistance with putting this symposium together.

The Symposium will run for three weeks. Although it was not easy to classify these essays, the editors thought it was necessary to organize them around major themes around which they could then be organized. The categories we have used to sequence the order in which the essays will be published does not therefore mean that the essays do not raise cross-cutting themes. In Week One, the theme of the symposium will be “Country or Regional Studies” on the teaching of international law based on perspectives from Africa, Asia and Latin America.

In Week Two, the focus moves on to the “Institutional Frameworks and Reflections.” The essays in week 2 will focus on critical international law scholarship especially for teachers and researchers from the Global South. It will consider questions such as hosting events and other for a for critical international law scholarship and teaching, but also the challenges and opportunities relating to publication, and the accessibility of materials for scholars and teachers in the Global South.

Finally, in Week Three, the essays will be on the theme “What Needs to be Done”. These contributions analyze concrete ways that we can apply some of the interventions in this symposium.

Symposium Introduction: Teaching and Researching International Law – Global Perspectives

Contributors

Week One: Country or Regional Studies

Sergey Sayapin: The Post-Soviet Central Asia and International Law: Practice, Research and Teaching

Tran Viet Dung: Teaching and Researching International Law: An Assessment Based on Ho Chi Minh City University of Law’s Experience

Yin Yin Win: Teaching and Researching International Law in Myanmar

Balraj K Sidhu: TRILA and India: A Plea for its Restoration

Nciko Arnold: The Hutians – Decolonising the Teaching of Public International Law in African Law Schools to Address a Real Problem

Amaya Álvez Marín, Laura Betancur-Restrepo, Enrique Prieto-Rios, Daniel Rivas-Ramírez, and Fabia Veçoso: Rethinking International Law Education in Latin America

Antarnihita Mishra and Aman Kumar: South Asian University: Towards a ‘South-Asian’ Approach to International Law – Part I; South Asian University: Towards a ‘South-Asian’ Approach to International Law – Part II

Andreas R Ziegler: Don’t Let International Law Become an Exotic Field Irrelevant for Lawyers…Seven Demands

George Rodrigo Bandeira Galindo: Some (Short) Reflections on (My) International Law Teaching Experience in Brazil