Welcome to the Hart Publishing Online Resource for Gendered Peace through International Law by Louise Arimatsu and Christine Chinkin.
Through these essays we have sought to reimagine international law by centering gender and peace to free it from its ‘imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy’ (bell hooks) structures of power to which orthodox interpretations of law are chained. These power structures, together with militarism (cultural and material), have become far more apparent throughout 2024 as has the precariousness of international law and its institutions. The assault by western liberal democracies on the post-war legal architecture and norms – the primary ambition of which is to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war – is dis-spiriting to say the least. The rise of the right and authoritarianism, the normalisation of the police state combined with the curtailment of civil liberties and militarism framed as progressive realism casts a shadow hard to ignore.
But we are far from writing an obituary. For we are concurrently witnessing the reclaiming of international law, effected through its political and judicial institutions, by those whose freedom and liberty from colonialist oppression were secured in part through law’s norms and mechanisms. The oppressed and the less powerful intuitively turn to law recognising its continued value and potential notwithstanding its origins in empire.
Current events make talk of gendered peace seem naïve and utopian. From the inception of this project our ambition has been to urge for an international law committed to gender diversity, justice and peace. Are we out of step? Yes and no. Perhaps being untimely comes with being feminist international lawyers. But we think we are in good company.
