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8 U. C. Davis J. Int'l L. & Pol'y 73 (2002)
Making New Wine for Old Wineskins: Can the Reform of International Law Emancipate the Third World in the Age of Globalization

handle is hein.journals/ucdl8 and id is 81 raw text is: MAKING NEW WINE FOR OLD WINESKINS: CAN THE REFORM OF INTERNATIONAL LAW EMANCIPATE THE THIRD WORLD IN THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION? Joel Ngugi* TABLE OF CONTENTS I. H ARD Q UESTIONS ...................................... 73 II. COVERING HISTORY'S TRACK: THE PLACE OF IDEOLOGY IN INTERNATIONAL LEGAL DISCOURSE ...... 80 III. THE SOVEREIGNTY SHELL-GAME ........................... 86 A. An Imminent Demise or Re-entrenchment? .......... 86 B. Lessons From the History of Sovereignty ............ 97 IV. CONCLUSION: A RECOMMENDATION FROM OUTSIDE THE FRAMEWORK ...................................... 99 I. HARD QUESTIONS This paper asks whether international law as presently configured has any redemptive or ameliorative potential to the Third World.' Some * SJD Candidate, Harvard Law School; LL.M (Harvard Law School, 1999); LL.B (Hons) (University of Nairobi, 1996); Advocate of the High Court of Kenya; Byse Fellow, Harvard Law School; Graduate Student Associate, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University. Formerly Dissertation Fellow, Institute for the Study of World Politics, Washington, DC and Recipient, Weatherhead - MacAr- thur Summer Travel Grant during the period in which the ideas in this article jelled. I would like to thank Professors Duncan Kennedy, David Kennedy and Robert Wil- liams, Jr. for their encouragement and guidance. Over the years I have had many discussions with Professors James Gathii, Obiora Okafor, Balakrishnan Rajagopal and Anthony Anghie and with my colleagues, Alejandro Lorite, Hani Sayed and Ray- mond Atuguba that have helped shaped my thinking about some of the issues I dis- cuss in this article. Sylvia Kang'ara was, as ever, always there for me. I am thankful. 1 I consciously use the term Third World in this essay as an analytical category as Balakrishnan Rajagopal suggests. This conception de-emphasizes the importance of geography and political ideology in the definition of the Third World. In this con- ception, the Third World is not a geopolitical construct referring to specific areas of the world that are economically under-developed. Neither is it an ideological position of non-alignment with either the Western powers or the former communist powers. It also is not a historical category referring to the post-colonial political period in the non-Western world. Rather, the analytical category of the Third World emphasizes the power contestation between different holders and actors and its articulation in international relations. See Balakrishnan Rajagopal, Locating the Third World in Cul- tural Geography, THIRD WORLD LEGAL STUD. 1 (1998-99).

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