Geography and International Law: Towards a Postcolonial Mapping

Postcolonial theory aims at a critical interrogation of legitimizing knowledge claims put forward by proponents of the resurgent Empire. This article undertakes such an interrogation at the intersection of geography and international law. It aims to demonstrate that both modern geography and modern international law were constituted in, by, and through imperatives of Empire and unavoidably bear traces of their formative origin. The aim is to theorize the spatiality of global relations of domination and resistance under the shadow of international law. The article first identifies the vantage point of this critical engagement, namely postcolonial approach to inquiry. It then traces the emergence of modern geography as scaffolding for the construction of modern nation-state, modern construction of race, and modern international law. It then examines the intersection of geography and international law at the current global conjuncture; and the last part suggests a frame of reference to map resistance of global subalterns