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5 Transnat'l Legal Theory 1 (2014)

handle is hein.journals/trnsletho5 and id is 1 raw text is: DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5235/20414005.5.1.1 Transnational Human Rights Litigation and Territorialised Knowledge: Kiobel and the'Politics of Space' Philip Liste* Abstract In Kiobel v Royal Dutch Petroleum, Dutch and British private corporations were accused of having aided and abetted the violation of the human rights of individuals in Nigeria. A lawsuit, however, was brought in the United States, relying on the Alien Tort Statute-part of a Judiciary Act from 1789. In its final decision on the case, the US Supreme Court focused strongly on'territory'. This use of a spatial category calls for closer scrutiny of how the making of legal arguments presupposes 'spatial knowledge, especially in the field of transnational human rights litigation. Space is hardly a neutral category. What is at stake is normativity on a global scale with the domestic courtroom turned into a site of spatial contestation. This paper explores the construction of 'the transna- tional' as space, which implicates a 'politics of space' at work underneath the exposed surface of legal argumentation. The 'Kiobel situation' is addressed as a case belonging to a broader picture, including the following contested elements of space: a particular spatial condition of modern nation-state territoriality; the production of 'counter- space, eventually undermining the spatial regime of inter-state society; and the state not accepting its withering away. How are normative boundaries between the involved jurisdictional spaces drawn? How does the 'politics of space' work underneath or beyond the plain moments of judicial decision- making? How territorialised is the legal knowledge at work and how does territoriality work in legal arguments? Rechtskulturen Postdoc Fellow 2013/14, Humboldt Universitit zu Berlin/Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin; Senior Researcher and Lecturer, University of Hamburg, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences (Politi- cal Science, esp Global Governance). Email: philip.liste@wiso.uni-hamburg.de. For insightful critique on earlier versions of this paper, I am grateful to Tanja Aalberts, Fred Aman, Hauke Brunkhorst, Hannah Buxbaum, Daniel Chernilo, Lauren Coyle, Andreas Fischer- Lescano, Katja Freistein, Alexis Galan, Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen, Morag Goodwin, Friederike Kuntz, Hans Lindahl, Nick Onuf, Sven Opitz, Nik Rajkovic, Umut Turem, Wouter Werner, Antje Wiener, Peer Zumbansen and the participants at the Global Governance Colloquium, 21 August 2013 at the University of Hamburg. All websites accessed 2 April 2014. (2014) 5(1) TLT 1-19

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