International Law in Public Debate

Madelaine Chiam is a Senior Lecturer and Director of Teaching and Learning at La Trobe University Law School. She is also a founding member of the La Trobe International Legal Studies Research Group.

• 1. International law in public debate; 2 A 'popular' international law; 3. Public debate in 2003: The Iraq War; 4. Public debate in 1965–1966: the Vietnam War; 5. Public debate in 1916: the First World War; 6. Conclusion.

'Rigorous, insightful and an enthralling read - this book could not be more timely. In clear and engaging prose, Chiam highlights the richness and potency of vernacular versions of international law propagated at three fraught historical junctures of the 20th century. In so doing, Chiam cleverly re-wires 21st century worries about the challenges that populism and inequality pose to international law. Rather than imagining these as new and terrible trials for international legal order, this book reminds us that international law has long been popularly generated and generative under conditions of inequality. Even in war, Chiam demonstrates, international legal authority has been far more amenable to collectivization and cutting across prevailing friend-enemy lines than commonly acknowledged. And, Chiam shows, these skills might yet be relearned by international lawyers listening with care to non-native speakers of their discipline.' Fleur Johns, Faculty of Law and Justice, UNSW Sydney