Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL)

This chapter introduces Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) as a critical movement that rethinks the discipline of international law from a transformative perspective. Against mainstream approaches, TWAIL offers a theoretical, methodological and analytical framework that contributes to questioning the foundations of international law as well as the structural exclusions and inequalities underlying the discipline. Highlighting the diversity within this approach, the chapter introduces the reader to TWAIL’s background and origins, followed by a review of its distinctive characteristics, focus and goals, as well as some critiques and shortcomings. It also features two works exemplifying TWAIL’s analysis and concludes with some practical exercises that aim to help the reader apply TWAIL in their work.