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Civilizing Nature : Revisiting the Imperialist History of International Law 1511-1972

by Fonseca Manuel Jimnez

Institution: University of Helsinki
Year: 2017
Keywords: Public International Law; Public International Law
Posted: 02/01/2018
Record ID: 2153855
Full text PDF: http://hdl.handle.net/10138/177965


Abstract

This study explores the historical relationship between international law and nature from a critical standpoint. In particular, it seeks to demonstrate that the appropriation of non-European nature in colonial times played a fundamental role in the development of international law and that, conversely, international law was instrumental in legitimizing the imperialist appropriation of non-European nature. Legal arguments fashioned around the use and exploitation of nature validated a number of imperial interventions in non-European territories that resulted in western environmental hegemony while producing environmental degradation and social dislocation in those territories. The thesis argues that the imperialist appropriation of non-European ecosystems took place at two different levels: one material, the other conceptual. On the one hand, the introduction of the economic institutions of private property and international trade in non-European territories, through a supposedly universal international legal language, served to privatize and commodify non-European nature. On the other hand, international legal scholars and colonial commentators developed a discourse that presented the European management of the environment as progressive and superior to that of non-Europeans. Rather than constituting separate elements, these two dimensions functioned together. The alleged backwardness of non-Europeans in mastering their natural habitats created fertile ground for the introduction of European economic institutions in the colonies. In turn, the assumed progressiveness of those institutions served to demonstrate European superiority in regard to the use of non-Europeans ecosystems. The result was a rather robust rationale that allowed fulfilling one of the main goals of Western territorial expansion: the seizing of natural resources overseas. By demonstrating that European colonists and intellectuals placed non-Europeans in a continuum with nature, this research aims both to question and broaden the traditional understanding of the civilizing mission. That mission was larger than the mere attempt to redeem non-Europeans and upgrade their condition. It was a more thorough, encompassing and far reaching project: the project of creating progress out of the transformation of non-European wilderness wild nature and wild people into civilization. Tm tutkimus paneutuu kansainvlisen oikeuden ja luonnon vliseen suhteeseen historiassa - siirtomaakaudelta aina 1900-luvun toisen puoliskon puolivliin. Tutkimuksen pvittm on, ett siirtomaakaudella Euroopan ulkopuolisen luonnon valtaamisella oli suuri merkitys kansainvlisen oikeuden kehitykselle. Kansainvlisest oikeudesta tuli trke oikeutus luonnon valtaamiselle siirtomaissa. Tuloksena oli lntinen ympristhegemonia, joka johti siirtomaissa luonnonympristn tilan heikkenemiseen ja yhteiskunnallisiin ongelmiin. Tutkimus on jaettu kahteen osioon. Yhtlt se tarkastelee taloudellisia oikeuksia - etenkin yksityisomistusoikeutta ja maa-alueiden

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