International Lawyers in Post-Soviet Eurasia: Decoding the Divisibility

Abstract

This article examines the epistemic community of post-Soviet Eurasian international lawyers who interact, publish, teach and practise international law, predominantly in Russia and in Russian, forming a Russia-centred divisible college. By decoding the unknown group, the article presents its defining characteristics, including the link between membership in a Russia-centred epistemic community and the members’ potential Russlandversteher (Russia-apologist) behaviour. Analysing how post-Soviet Eurasian international lawyers act within different social arrangements (legal education, academic publication and practice of law), the article demonstrates how and to what extent such divisibility is symbolized in their political actorship.