Essay

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Essay
22.1
China and Comparative International Law: Between Social Science and Critique
Matthew S. Erie
Associate Professor of Modern Chinese Studies, Member of the Law Faculty, and Associate Research Fellow of the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Oxford.

The author thanks Liu Yiqiang, Wang Chenguang, and Yang Liu for their help in conducting research for this Essay, and Liu Sida for reading an earlier draft. Chinese names are provided with surname first per Chinese language convention. All errors and all translations are the author’s. This work is part of the “China, Law and Development” project, which has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (Grant No. 803763).

This Essay brings Abebe, Chilton, and Ginsburg’s Lead Essay into conversation with the literature on comparative international law to ask whether the social scientific approach to international law is “international.” In particular, this Essay takes the case of scholarship on international law in China to examine why or why not particular methodological and theoretical perspectives on international law may gain traction in certain jurisdictions’ legal academies.

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22.1
Herding Schrödinger’s Cats: The Limits of the Social Science Approach to International Law
Simon Chesterman
Dean and Provost’s Chair Professor, National University of Singapore Faculty of Law. This Article was presented at the Chicago Journal of International Law’s symposium on “The Transformation of International Law Scholarship,” held at the University of Chicago and online on February 26, 2021.

Many thanks to Griffin Clark, Tom Ginsburg, Katherine Luo, Ana Carolina Luquerna, and Jared Mayer for their comments and improvements to the draft. Errors and omissions remain the author’s alone.

This Essay argues that an uncritical embrace of social science methods risks losing much of what draws people to international law and what has, over the centuries, given it value. As a work in progress in which academics have a special role to play, a commitment merely to take international law “as it is” is not neutral; it is a value statement in itself.

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22.1
On Relating Social Sciences to International Law: Three Perspectives
Yifeng Chen
Associate Professor, Peking University Law School.

The author would like to thank the editors of the Chicago Journal of International Law for their valuable editorial input. The author also thanks Xiaolu Fan, research associate with the Peking University Institute of International Law, for her useful research assistance.

This Essay offers a critical yet constructive reading of the social science approach to international law.

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22.1
Reflections on the Value of Socio-Legal Approaches to International Economic Law in Africa
Olabisi D. Akinkugbe
Assistant Professor at the Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University, Canada, and an Adjunct Visiting Assistant Professor, at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, U.S.A. He is also a co-founding editor of Afronomicslaw.org blog which focuses on all aspects of international economic law as they relate to Africa and the Global South, and the African Journal of International Economic Law (AfJIEL).

Thanks to Adam Chilton, Tom Ginsburg, and Daniel Abebe, and the editors of the Chicago Journal of International Law (CJIL) for the invitation to be part of the CJIL 2021 Symposium with the theme: The Transformation of International Law Scholarship.

This Essay critically assesses how and why one might use socio-legally inspired methods (analytical, empirical, and normative) for the study of international economic law (IEL) in Africa.

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18.1
Experimentally Testing the Effectiveness of Human Rights Treaties
Adam S. Chilton
Assistant Professor of Law, University of Chicago Law School. Email: adamchilton@uchicago.edu.

This paper was prepared for the “International Law as Behavior” Conference organized by the American Society of International Law and the University of Georgia School of Law. I would like to thank participants in that conference and Katherina Linos for helpful comments. I would also like to thank Vera Shikhelman and Katie Bass for research assistance, and the Baker Scholars Fund at the University of Chicago Law School for financial support.

I. Introduction

Humanitarian/Human Rights Law Monitoring, Enforcement, and Compliance

Volumes