The putative crisis of international law, today as in other eras, is inseparable from its own production of crisis. Because international law derives much of its legitimacy from its claim to address, manage, and resolve crises, traditional approaches to international law see it as the solution, not the problem. When international law is unable to respond effectively to crisis, it is often seen as “in crisis.”

What receives much less attention than international law’s failure to resolve crisis is the related role that international law plays in the production of the very crises to which it responds. We consider that production here in the context of feminist approaches to international law. We are particularly interested in the role of dominant feminist approaches in the production and maintenance of crisis through their successful calls for international legal action.