Book contents
- Capitalism As Civilisation
- Cambridge Studies in International and Comparative Law: 142
- Capitalism As Civilisation
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- 1 The Standard of Civilisation in International Law
- 2 The Standard of Civilisation in the Nineteenth Century
- 3 The Institutionalisation of Civilisation in the Interwar Period
- 4 Arguing with Borrowed Concepts
- 5 From Iraq to Syria
- 6 Thinking through Contradictions on a Warming Planet
- Bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge Studies in International and Comparative Law
6 - Thinking through Contradictions on a Warming Planet
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 October 2020
- Capitalism As Civilisation
- Cambridge Studies in International and Comparative Law: 142
- Capitalism As Civilisation
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- 1 The Standard of Civilisation in International Law
- 2 The Standard of Civilisation in the Nineteenth Century
- 3 The Institutionalisation of Civilisation in the Interwar Period
- 4 Arguing with Borrowed Concepts
- 5 From Iraq to Syria
- 6 Thinking through Contradictions on a Warming Planet
- Bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge Studies in International and Comparative Law
Summary
This short final chapter summarises the main arguments of the book with a particular emphasis on the law’s indeterminacy and its relation to structural bias. The author argues that apart from evidencing the law’s total openness, the constant oscillation of ‘civilisation’ between ‘improvement’ and ‘biology’ in fact evidences its links to the contradictions of global capitalism. As a consequence, the structured indeterminacy of ‘civilisation’ can be useful to actors who accept the basic desirability of capitalism, but it can be profoundly damaging to radical projects.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Capitalism As CivilisationA History of International Law, pp. 212 - 220Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020