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Toward Rejuvenated Inspiration with the Unbearable Lightness of Anthropology

Halme-Tuomisaari, Miia LU (2021) In AJIL Unbound 115. p.283-288
Abstract
How might the connections between anthropology and international law become more dynamic? I reflect upon this question in this essay using ethnographic insights from the documentary cycles of the UN Human Rights Committee, the treaty body monitoring state compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Building on recent anthropological scholarship on international organizations, bureaucracy, and documents, this essay discusses the knowledge practices and legal technicalities that characterize the international community of human rights lawyers. In particular, I reflect on the legal fiction of difference governing UN treaty bodies’ operations and the empirical sameness of participants in different formal... (More)
How might the connections between anthropology and international law become more dynamic? I reflect upon this question in this essay using ethnographic insights from the documentary cycles of the UN Human Rights Committee, the treaty body monitoring state compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Building on recent anthropological scholarship on international organizations, bureaucracy, and documents, this essay discusses the knowledge practices and legal technicalities that characterize the international community of human rights lawyers. In particular, I reflect on the legal fiction of difference governing UN treaty bodies’ operations and the empirical sameness of participants in different formal categories in the shared community of practice of human rights lawyers. I conclude by suggesting that anthropological insights could significantly enrich our shared understanding of the diverse and subtle effects of human rights monitoring. Simultaneously such insights may offer rejuvenated inspiration for those international lawyers tackling a sense of losing faith in their discipline, both as an influential tool of world improvement and an invigorating intellectual tradition. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
AJIL Unbound
volume
115
pages
5 pages
publisher
Cambridge University Press
external identifiers
  • scopus:85173976043
ISSN
2398-7723
DOI
10.1017/aju.2021.37
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
464e7c76-c77f-41ac-9922-287edb9cfe7a
date added to LUP
2022-01-26 15:03:56
date last changed
2023-12-27 15:05:42
@article{464e7c76-c77f-41ac-9922-287edb9cfe7a,
  abstract     = {{How might the connections between anthropology and international law become more dynamic? I reflect upon this question in this essay using ethnographic insights from the documentary cycles of the UN Human Rights Committee, the treaty body monitoring state compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Building on recent anthropological scholarship on international organizations, bureaucracy, and documents, this essay discusses the knowledge practices and legal technicalities that characterize the international community of human rights lawyers. In particular, I reflect on the legal fiction of difference governing UN treaty bodies’ operations and the empirical sameness of participants in different formal categories in the shared community of practice of human rights lawyers. I conclude by suggesting that anthropological insights could significantly enrich our shared understanding of the diverse and subtle effects of human rights monitoring. Simultaneously such insights may offer rejuvenated inspiration for those international lawyers tackling a sense of losing faith in their discipline, both as an influential tool of world improvement and an invigorating intellectual tradition.}},
  author       = {{Halme-Tuomisaari, Miia}},
  issn         = {{2398-7723}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{08}},
  pages        = {{283--288}},
  publisher    = {{Cambridge University Press}},
  series       = {{AJIL Unbound}},
  title        = {{Toward Rejuvenated Inspiration with the Unbearable Lightness of Anthropology}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/aju.2021.37}},
  doi          = {{10.1017/aju.2021.37}},
  volume       = {{115}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}