6 - In Conclusion: International Law As We Know It

Summary

This last chapter returns to the main point of this book: to propose a new “way of seeing” (Johns) international legal knowledge construction. It puts forward three conclusions. First, the “mundane” (Johns) only comes into view by changing the way we read or listen. This entails a willingness to attend to international law’s texts; to spend time with them and to ‘stay seated’ throughout the attempt at reading or hearing them differently. Second, considering others’ knowledge practices this closely spills over into a closer consideration of one’s own. This is in fact what follows from the book's sociological approach, and by showing what forms this (self-)reflection may take on, I argue that the knowledge practices of those involved in the cyberwar discourse are not limited to doctrinal work. Third, looking at international legal scholarship in this way also reveals the presence of its writers. In writing about international law its scholars distance themselves from it; and in so doing we come to see that there is, in fact, a writer at work (as also discussed by Pierre Schlag). What results is a view of scholars as engaged in ‘writing law’ in a very literal, textual, tangible sense.