International Law and Political Engagement (ILPE) series: In Conversation with Dr Robert Knox and Dr Ntina Tzourvala on International Law and Critique in time of COVID-19

A series of conversations on international legal scholarship, political engagement and the transformative potential of academia. Each conversation will be chaired by Francisco José Quintana and Marina Veličković and will centre around a theme, concept or a method and their relationship to political movements, struggles and margins from which they have emerged and within (and for) which they have emancipatory potential.

The conversation will focus on the role that critical approaches to international law have played and should play in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. We will look beyond the dominant disciplinary responses to COVID-19 and explore if and how international law can be employed strategically in this context. The relationship between international law and political economy will serve as our starting point, and from there we will explore the potential of international law to be used as a tool of politics of resistance and transformation. We will also discuss challenges and responsibilities of teaching international law at a time of crisis. Marina and Francisco will lead the conversation for ~45 minutes after which they will pass the responsibility on to the audience. This session will be hosted online via Zoom Webinar. Pre-registration is required and, in order to preserve the intimacy and informality that define the series, places are limited. Priority will be given to LCIL fellows and Cambridge students.

Speakers:

Ntina Tzouvala is an ARC Laureate Postdoctoral Fellow in International Law at Melbourne Law School. Her work focuses on the history and theory of international law, with a particular emphasis on international law and global capitalism. Her first monograph, Capitalism as Civilisation: A History of International Law, will be published by Cambridge University Press in late 2020.

Robert Knox is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Liverpool and an Editor of Historical Materialism and The London Review of International Law. He works primarily in the Marxist and critical legal traditions. His research touches on the relationship between international law, capitalism and imperialism (with a particular focus on questions of racialisation), on law’s key role in the birth and consolidation of neoliberalism and on the relationship between law and social change.