1st Edition
Feminist Theory and International Law Posthuman Perspectives
Feminist approaches to international law have been mischaracterised by the mainstream of the discipline as being a niche field that pertains only to women’s lived experiences and their participation in decision-making processes. Exemplifying how feminist approaches can be used to analyse all areas of international law, this book applies posthuman feminist theory to examine the regulation of new and emerging military technologies, international environmental law and the conceptualisation of the sovereign state and other modes of legal personality in international law.
Noting that most posthuman scholarship to date is primarily theoretical, this book also contributes to the field of posthumanism through its application of posthuman feminism to international law, working to bridge the theory and practice divide by using posthuman feminism to design and call for legal change. This interdisciplinary book draws on an array of fields, including philosophy, queer and feminist theories, postcolonial and critical race theories, computer science, critical disability studies, science and technology studies, marine biology, cultural and media studies, Indigenous onto-epistemologies, critical legal theory, political science and beyond to provide a holistic analysis of international law and its inclusions and exclusions.
This interdisciplinary book will appeal to students and scholars with interests in legal, feminist and posthuman theory, as well as those concerned with the contemporary challenges faced by international law.
Introduction: Posthuman Feminism and International Law 1. International Law and the Nonhuman 2. Human and Machine: Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems 3. Regulating Military Technologies: Between Resistance and Compliance 4. Queering the Nonhuman: Engaging International Environmental Law 5. The Subjectivity of Matter: The Rights of Nature in International Law 6. Posthuman Feminism: Reworlding Exits from Liberal Legalism
Biography
Dr Emily Jones is a NUAcT Fellow based in Newcastle Law School, Newcastle University, UK.
"This important book explores critically the main intersections between International Law and the nonhuman in the contemporary world. Emily Jones’s bold interdisciplinary approach exposes the limitations of the Humanism and Anthropocentrism inherent to International Law, while re-asserting the Law’s commitment to face the challenges of the posthuman predicament. Foremost among them, the regulation of human-machine interaction in military technologies and the status of nature in Environmental Law.
Pragmatic, but theoretically savvy, Jones combines critique with creativity by proposing alternative sources that many help overcome legal liberalism. Posthuman Feminism, Queering the Nonhuman, Indigenous Epistemologies, New Materialism, and the Rights of Nature movement are just some of the toolkits this remarkable book provides as a way forward.
Emily Jones holds legal discourse accountable but also confirms its ability to change and construct more inclusive, sustainable and just worlds. A major work that will leave a mark." Rosi Braidotti, Distinguished Professor Emerita, Utrecht University, the Netherlands.
"Anchoring us in new possibilities, this impressive work explains what posthuman feminist perspectives offer to the urgent task of superseding international law’s deadly imperial anthropocentrism by fostering legal systems capable of sustaining life in all its forms. Drawing on a staggering array of interdisciplinary critical scholarship, Jones illustrates some of the paradigm shifts that are necessary if we, and the planet, are to survive (let alone flourish) in these posthuman times. To illustrate, she engages adeptly with current debates in two areas of international law – the regulation of lethal military technologies and international environmental law. Along the way Jones remains cognisant of the many tensions that can compromise or co-opt feminist efforts to change international law’s neoliberal humanist orientation from within, readily acknowledging that posthuman feminist change is also necessary outside the law and may even require a turning away from law." Dianne Otto, Melbourne Law School, Australia.
"In this meticulously researched and beautifully written book, Emily Jones draws on posthuman feminism to both highlight and question international law's constitutive boundaries: human/nature, human/technology and, perhaps above all, the boundaries imposed upon feminist legal theory in the field. By applying a radically egalitarian feminist framework to the laws of war and international environmental law, Jones reveals that some of the most urgent problems of our times, war, climate change and anti-feminist backlash, are much more interconnected than we might have thought." Ntina Tzouvala, Associate Professor, ANU College of Law, Australian National University.
