Alternative Modernity as a Possible Foundation of International Law: Some Epistemic Formulations

Abstract

Abstract The Third World Approach to International Law (TWAIL) has listed out the problematic foundations of international law but it has not ventured into significantly altering the discourse and language of international law per se. The immediate problem which we encounter is that of identifying and delineating the sources of international law, and we find Europe writ large everywhere. The entire Renaissance in Europe since the 1500s and the Enlightenment as its byproduct looked into the wisdom of ancient Greece and Rome which was completely lost to them and was known only through Arab translation. A link was drawn, whether real or mythical, with the ancient yore, which then informed thier idea of the present. Even Law, as a means to achieve "justice," acquires mythical proportions. A self-intuitive understanding of justice of justice for all living creatures constituting the globe is an intrinsic part of those societies untouched by colonial contact, as well as folk and spritual traditons of the Global South. If we are to recreate a sense of place and time at the present, it can dig into this past to create a theoretical framework of international law, for an alternatively modern, non-European world which is always about to come. And as a means to approach this alternative modernity of the Global South, an inspiration is drawn from the writings of Akeel Bilgrami, Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, and others, and attempt to develop the foundations of a theoretical framework to depart from the imposed "modernity" of the Global North as a foundation for international law.