Beyond Cynicism and Critique: International Law and the Possibility of Change

In this chapter, I seek to map and analyse potential negative consequences of cynicism and critique in international law scholarship. Clearly, there is a lot to be cynical and critical about and many reasons for wanting to change the world. But I argue that for real change both discursive practices can have the unintended effect of contributing to the legitimation of the status quo. Using examples from international criminal law, I show how cynicism and critique are not productive as such. I also demonstrate, among other consequences, that the more one uncovers the hidden mechanisms and structures of power in international law, the fewer alternatives cynics as well as critics are able to identify, leading them to believe that reality—while lamentable—is still the best of all possible worlds. To overcome this fatalism, I call for imagining new strategies for change that go beyond existing categories of law and legal institutions. As an illustration, I present an alternative programme for international criminal law that focuses on removing the structural root causes of violence rather than mitigating only individual symptoms.