Unit 1
The Politics of International Law and Global Governance

Overview

Unit 1 introduces international law as a political phenomenon shaped by political discourse and political practice and presents the challenges we face as we attempt to both understand and create legal and political systems in the contemporary era. In this unit of the course we explore different theoretical approaches to explain or understand law and governance at the global level. There are many different perspectives on international law and global governance, and on the relationship between them. These perspectives correspond to some of the traditional theories employed to understand global politics at large. Included in this section will be a discussion of realism, idealism, liberalism, and critical perspectives including Marxism, feminism, and constructivism. Much of our discussion in other sections of the course draws from the work of constructivism and many of the readings that we will be examining adopt some variant of constructivism. This section, however, is intended to provide a range of perspectives that can be used to explain or understand the role of law and governance in global politics.

Learning Objectives

When you have completed Unit 1, you should be able to achieve the following learning objectives:

1. Describe some of the key issues and events that inform the context of international law and global governance
2. Identify the principle assumptions of realist, liberal, and constructivist approaches to global politics
3. Explain the realist view on international law
4. Explain the difference between realist and liberal approaches to international co-operation
5. Describe Murphy’s Gramscian approach to global governance
6. Explain constructivism and how it has been applied to international law
7. Discuss the relationship between politics and international law
8. Explain the meaning and relevance of global governance