Against coloniality in the international law curriculum: examining decoloniality

Abstract

Prompted by the “Rhodes Must Fall” movement in South Africa, debates concerning the decolonisation of the university curriculum have gained increased traction. In the discipline of international law, a tentative pedagogical project of decolonising the university builds on a rich academic debate on the continuities of colonialism. Our contribution to this emerging pedagogical project is to introduce traditions of thought on decoloniality that may complement already existing reflections on and suggestions for decolonising the curriculum. We highlight some key concepts from Latin American thinkers on decoloniality and consider how far this body of knowledge can be translated into a decolonised international law curriculum. For this purpose, we devise four tactics of decoloniality: the tactic of accepting an “ecology of knowledges”, the tactic of “locus enunciations”, the tactic of “dialogical teaching”, and the tactic of troubling a “pedagogy of absences”.