Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper argues that neither mainstream nor critical theories of international law or international political economy have developed theorizations of transnational law that capture the materiality, normativity, and historical effectivity of law. It seeks to address these inadequacies by developing a critical political economy of international law through analysis of law in its commodity form. The paper posits that international law takes on a form that is specific to and homologous with the commodity form of transnational capitalist productive relations. It develops the commodity form of law as the form of law specific to transnational capitalism, drawing upon the praxis conception of law and related conceptions of historical blocs and hegemony developed by Antonio Gramsci.