The right to boycott: BDS, law, and politics in a global context

Abstract

This article discusses the global campaigns for boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel, which frame their objectives primarily in legal terms, as well as the transnational strategy to suppress BDS campaigns by means of the law. After arguing that the strategy to suppress BDS campaigns by means of the law exemplifies an instrumentalisation of law that is fundamentally at odds with the rule of law, I discuss two landmark judgments that recognised a right to boycott, and demonstrate that what is ultimately at stake in these judgments is the right to participate in politics. I then analyse the various concepts of politics exemplified by the campaigns for BDS. Reflecting on the relationship between BDS, law, and politics in a global context, I pose the question how law might facilitate emancipatory and transformative politics across the boundaries of the nation-state.