On 4 December we will welcome Dr. Tommaso Soave, Assistant Professor at the Central European University, Vienna, to Glasgow for a talk about his monograph ‘The Everyday Makers of International Law’. In this book, Tommaso offers a unique insight into the inner workings of international courts and tribunals. Combining the rigour of the essay and the creativity of the novel, he narrates the invisible practices and interactions that make up the dispute settlement process, from the filing of the initial complaint to the issuance of the final decision.
At each step, the book unravels the myriad activities of the legal experts running the international judiciary – judges, arbitrators, agents, counsel, advisors, bureaucrats, and specialized academics – and reveals their pervasive power in the process. The cooperation and competition among these inner circles of professionals lie at the heart of international judicial decisions. By shedding light on these social dynamics, he takes the reader on a journey through the lives, ambitions, and preoccupations of the everyday makers of international law.
At the event, Tommaso will introduce the book, before Professor Tams offers some thoughts on the book based on his review published in the European Journal of International Law (Vol 34(4) 2023), before we invite questions from those in attendance. The event will take place in hybrid format.
Please sign up via the Eventbrite page.
Some praise for the book:
‘Tommaso Soave’s The Everyday Makers of International Law open[s] the black box of international institutional law and apply sociological as well as anthropological methods to study the people, spaces, and processes that create international law.’
Silvia Steininger and Helga Molbæk-Steensig Source: EJIL:Talk!
‘[H]aving started as a sceptic, I ended up liking Soave’s ‘departure from canon’: partly because for him to ‘bend the genres’ is a bold move that deserves respect in a discipline privileging safe, risk-free writing and partly because Soave writes in a distinctive style using accessible language. … Soave makes points that are far too rarely made in the orthodox accounts … [he] complements these standard accounts and succeeds where they largely fail – in acquainting readers with the everyday routines and micro-practices of international courts and tribunals. … this is what makes Soave’s book stand out. It is a significant achievement.’
Christian J. Tams Source: European Journal of International Law
‘… Soave’s apparent joy in writing his fictional vignettes is contagious. His text provides a vivid, memorable, and convincing behind-the-scenes description of the everyday life of those responsible for making international judicial decisions. This creative and challenging book brings to light an important set of actors and activities to which the scholarship has only turned its attention in the past decade or so. As any good scholarship, it leaves the reader with a taste for more, highlighting how much more unraveling remains to be done.’
Tamar M. Egiddo Source: American Journal of International Law
