International Law and Power: A Theoretical Perspective on Statehood and Self-Determination

Abstract: The purpose of the present thesis is to investigate the foundations for statehood and self-determination—two seminal points of international law—through the concept of discourse and its notion of power. The starting point is that language and representations of reality are not merely ‘objective’ depictions, but in fact shaped by the practices that convey the representations. This constitutes the theoretical framework, inspired by Michel Foucault, with a focus on the intricate connections between power and knowledge. To this an investigation of statehood and self-determination is applied, and the result is that the narrative of international law can be seen as influenced by discourse, with structural bias giving primacy to statehood and thus posing obstacles for a development towards greater diversity.