Latin American Approaches Resisting From The Margins: Rewriting International Law, Development and Postcolonialism

LATIN AMERICAN APPROACHES RESISTING FROM THE
MARGINS: REWRITING INTERNATIONAL LAW,

DEVELOPMENT AND POSTCOLONIALISM1
Gabriel Antonio Silveira Mantelli2
Unfortunately, I could not attend physically to this Conference but a kindly

colleague accepted to represent me and read these brief words about my ongoing research.
Here in Brazil, the political-institutional context faces a delicate moment, specially taking
into account the undemocratic tensions going on after Dilma Roussef’s impeachment.
The current administration is committed with austerity and we are lacking fund to
scientific research. Of course, the audience of this presentation – Third World scholars –
is aware of this kind of political situation that damages directly our scientific production.
However, we remain resisting from the margins. I believe in solidarity among our peers
and Professor Ralph Wilde – now presenting this lecture in my name – is a proof of this
hopeful attitude.
As I am not in the room taking many notes on your contributions and engaging
the debate, I think it is fair if I do not spend too many time in this presentation. Besides
that, it reflects the current state of an ongoing research I am conducting at Getulio Vargas
Foundation (FGV São Paulo) with the supervisor of Professors Michelle Ratton and Fabio
Morosini. If the audience could help me with contributions to my research, could you
please send me an e-mail as it appears on the Conference program or through my profile
at Academia.edu.
My research is a theoretical effort to produce a critical dissertation that relates

international law, development and postcolonialism, specially taking into account Latin
American literature – that, in my argument, is not yet reflected in the established studies
made by TWAIL scholars. As my research is conducted in a law and development
1 This paper, presented at TWAIL Singapore 2018, represents the ongoing research I am conducting at Getulio Vargas
Foundation’s Law and Development Program. I thank Ralph Wilde for the kindness to represent me during Panel 19
“Law, history and its Others” – moderator Vidya Kumar. See more information about TWAIL Singapore:
https://law.nus.edu.sg/twail/index.html.
2 Masters’ student in Law and Development at Getulio Vargas Foundation’s São Paulo Law School (FGV Direito SP)
awarded with a Brazilian scholarship (CAPES/PROSUP Program). Bachelor of Law from University of São Paulo
(USP). Researcher at FGV Direito SP’s Global Law and Development Study Center. Associated with the Brazilian
Empirical Law Research Network (REED) and with the Latin American Studies Association (LASA). Former
environmental lawyer. Full-time researcher in São Paulo, Brazil.
program, one of my primordial objectives is to bring critical legal scholarship to this field
and at the same time to engage Latin American literature in a broader framework that I
call the “established” critical international law studies.
In my research, I am using as scope the postcolonial studies and its influence on

the legal scholarship. When we look to the critical studies made on international law and
development, we can that some important work has been done specially by Third World
researchers.
My first research question could be summarized as “how critical legal literature

relates international law, development and postcolonialism?”. In order to answer that
question, I found that two socio-legal dynamics are described by critical literature. First,
the relationship between international law, development and postcolonialism established
by critical international law is able to illustrate how Third World resistance shaped
international law, as presented specially by by Balakrishnan Rajagopal (2003,
“International law from below”). Second, it also presents how the universal discourse
around development has structured the current ideological-institutional complex of
international law, as presented specially and Sundhya Pahuja (2011, “Decolonising
international law”).
As I was going on with my research, I started to miss the face Latin America in
these studies. So after the first research question was answered, two research hypotheses
came into the way – now related with this concern with Latin American experience. I
started to wonder that, although “established” critical international law has illuminated
many concerns and asymmetries in international law, this literature, that includes scholars
around NAIL and TWAIL projects, has not yet managed to fully taking into consideration
the Latin American studies on the same field. In my hypothesis, this “blind spot” – and I
am using it between quotation marks because the idea is not to attack the past studies but
to try to expand the debate on present and futures studies – occurs due to two factors.
The first hypothesis is that established critical literature is focused on a limited

historical-temporal framework, focused fundamentally on the historical past of
international law after II World War and on the Eurocentric critique of epistemic
production of knowledge and law.
The second hypothesis is that established critical literature has a limitation on the
conceptualization of international law – maybe a monolithic view of it – that overshadows
alternative narratives of international law, such as global law and transnational law, which
have an influence on Latin America due to the North-American hegemony in the region.
With those hypotheses, my ongoing research now tries to offer two innovative
contributions in order both to bring more Latin American perspectives to critical
international law debate and to engage Latin American scholarship in the global debate.
The first contribution is the expansion of historical framework of international law

and development. The idea is to cover decolonial literatures – briefly, the Latin American
version of postcolonial studies – in international law, in order to expand the understanding
of the past of international law, including perspectives of Latin America. As I have
noticed, TWAIL literature is used to engage with “established” postcolonial studies that
includes Asian and African literature and some British studies. Both critical Latin
American studies – dependence, filosofia de la liberación – and recent decolonial studies
are not covered in the critical international law studies. In this point, my idea is to use
some studies that are not specific focused on law and development, but performed using
Latin American perspectives to international law, to expand the debate around
international law, development and postcolonialism. At this moment, I am considering
Liliana Obregón (2006, “Creole interventions in international law”) and Arnuld Becker
Lorca (2014, “Mestizo international law”), both engaged on the history of Latin American
international law – and that shows some tips like the civilization/progress discourse that
shaped current development discourse. Besides that, we have José-Manuel Barreto (2012,
“Decolonial strategies and dialogue in the human rights field”), specially its use of
decolonial studies on international law. Again, as I said, here the idea is to expand the
temporal framework on the debate around law and development using critical approaches
to international law.
The second contribution is the expansion of the conceptualization of international

law. The idea it to reconceptualize international law by unrevealing its multidimensional
condition, in opposition with the unilateral/regulatory framework that established
literature is used to study. As I have noticed, there has been a linear way of tracing the
dynamics on international law and development, focused on its regulatory face – UN
history, development policies itself, Third World versus First World and so on. I think we
can move forward and try to understand how international law and development is able
embrace many other forms of expression. The main idea is to uncover the dynamics of
power/oppression in the current expressions of international law (interstate, transnational
and global law). At this moment, I have two inspirations. First, studies proposed by Luis
Eslava (2015, “Local space, global life”) – when he uses ethnographic tools to study
international law, urban policies and development. Second, studies by Fabio Morosini
and Michelle Ratton Sanchez Badin (2017, “Reconceptualizing international investment
law from the Global South”) – when they engage with investment law using empirical
data to propose narratives in international law.
In presenting those contributions, I believe we can advance towards the critique

of international law from the Global South, particularly in Latin America, contributing
on interdisciplinary review of international law and, due the urgency on engage in Latin
American approaches on the theoretical level. I will have the final version of this research
on February 2019.
Thank you very much! Greetings from Brazil!
LIST OF REFERENCES
ANGHIE, Antony. The evolution of international law: colonial and postcolonial realities. Third
World Quarterly, v. 27, n. 5, p. 739-753, 2006.
BARRETO, José-Manuel. Decolonial strategies and dialogue in the human rights field: A
manifesto. Transnational Legal Theory, v. 3, n. 1, p. 1-29, 2012.
CASTRO-GÓMEZ, Santiago; GROSFOGUEL, Ramón (Ed.). El giro decolonial: reflexiones para
una diversidad epistémica más allá del capitalismo global. Bogotá: Siglo del Hombre Editores, 2007.
CHIMNI, Bhupinder S. Third World Approaches to International Law: a manifesto. International
Community Law Review, Leiden, v. 8, p. 3-27, 2006.
DARIAN-SMITH, Eve; FITZPATRICK, Peter (Ed.). Laws of the Postcolonial. Ann Arbor:
University of Michigan Press, 1999.
ESCOBAR, Arturo. Encountering development: the making and unmaking of the Third World.
New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1995.
ESLAVA, Luis. Local space, global life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015.
GANDHI, Leela. Postcolonial theory: a critical introduction. New York: Columbia University
Press, 1988.
LORCA, Arnulf Becker. Mestizo international law: a global intellectual history 1892-1933.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
MOROSINI, Fabio; BADIN, Michelle Ratton Sanchez. Reconceptualizing international
investment law from the Global South. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017.
OBREGÓN, Liliana. Between civilisation and barbarism: Creole interventions in international
law. Third World Quarterly, v. 27, n. 5, p. 815-832, 2006.
PAHUJA, Sundhya. Decolonising international law: development, economic growth and the
politics of universality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
RAJAGOPAL, Balakrishnan. International law from below: development, social movements and
Third World Resistance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
ROY, Alpana. Postcolonial theory and law: a critical introduction. Adelaide Law Review, v. 29, p.
315-357, 2008.

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LATIN AMERICAN APPROACHES RESISTING FROM THE

MARGINS: REWRITING INTERNATIONAL LAW,

Gabriel Antonio Silveira Mantelli2

Unfortunately, I could not attend physically to this Conference but a kindly

My research is a theoretical effort to produce a critical dissertation that relates

In my research, I am using as scope the postcolonial studies and its influence on

My first research question could be summarized as “how critical legal literature

The first hypothesis is that established critical literature is focused on a limited

The first contribution is the expansion of historical framework of international law

The second contribution is the expansion of the conceptualization of international

In presenting those contributions, I believe we can advance towards the critique

Thank you very much! Greetings from Brazil!

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