Two Attitudes towards Textuality in International Law: The Battle for Dualism

Jean D’aspremont (1)

1 EdD - École de Droit de Sciences Po (Sciences Po)

This article sketches out two distinct attitudes towards textuality in international law, namely international hermeneutics and international poetics. It argues that these two attitudes towards textuality espouse very different types of dualism of thought. This difference bears major implications on how the international lawyer approaches international legal texts. In exposing these two attitudes towards textuality and the distinct types of dualism they reveal, this article makes a plea for a greater embrace of international poetics by international lawyers, and thus for a complete remoulding of international lawyers’ dualist patterns of thought.

Mots clés: international law; international legal theory; interpretation; critical theory; post-structuralism

Domaines: Droit

Jean D’aspremont. Two Attitudes towards Textuality in International Law: The Battle for Dualism. Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, 2022, 42 (4), pp.963-984. ⟨10.1093/ojls/gqac010⟩. ⟨hal-03971054⟩