Part IV Debates, Ch.47 Creating Poverty

Subject(s):

Competition — Responsibility of international organizations — General principles of international law — Relationship of international law & host state law — Sources of international law

This chapter argues that poverty is created, maintained, and regulated. Global poverty occupies a unique position as both the ‘blind spot’ and raison d’être of an international legal system that has long attempted to secure a veneer of cooperation, justice, and legitimacy over a reality of competition, conquest, and exploitation. As such, it vividly illustrates the radical indeterminacy and ‘schizophrenia ‘ that ‘ tear[s]‌ apart the fragile structure’ of international law. That this contradiction appears to be little analysed, that there is so little conversation to detail, is testament to the strategies deployed to naturalize, excuse, and obscure the ‘fact’ of poverty.