The Notion of Progress in International Law Discourse

Abstract

The notion of progress performs a powerful role in international law discourse. The determination that a certain development constitutes “progress” impacts the production of knowledge, policy-making, allocation of resources, or access to power. The objective of the dissertation is to explore what makes a given development appear as constituting progress in international law. It is an investigation of how meaning about progress may be produced and an investigation of the consequences of the production of such meaning. The Dissertation argues that, although progress is a convenient rubric to describe international law events (arguments, developments, actions, and so on), it is a notion that is ultimately devoid of meaning unless placed in the context of a story of how things were, how things are, and how they need to be -- a “progress narrative”. Progress narratives are by definition non-objective and compete/exclude other progress narratives. International law discourse tends to deny or mask the non-objective character of its progress narratives. Although progress narrative may be a useful discursive form, the de-mystification of such narratives may be an equally productive and meaningful form of international law argument and one that gives access to a different horizon of action and intellectual possibility.

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