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Dr Stephen Humphreys

This course is available on the BA in Anthropology and Law and LLB in Laws. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. This course is available to General Course students.

This course provides a critical introduction to the history of international law, with a focus on the colonial histories of Asia, Africa and the Americas. Taking some of the world’s most heavily exchanged primary commodities as examples, we will track the development of their production and consumption from their domestic origins to their marketization and circulation in global trade today. The histories of some principal commodities – such as spices, gold, sugar, coffee, rubber, oil – tell the story of today’s global economy in microcosm. Their evolving regulation and growing exchange has provided the base for central elements of the contemporary international and transnational legal architecture. In exploring this history, we will also touch on cross-cutting issues relating to some or all of the following: the law of the sea, human rights, WTO/trade law, environmental law, the laws of war, investment arbitration, labour law, climate change and animal welfare law. We will also be looking at theories of consumption and production more generally, adopting a broad definition of ‘commodity’ to enrich our understanding and discussion of these topics. Our examination of emerging commodity markets will remain cognizant of the stateformation processes, international law developments, and trans-global networking entailed in their consolidation. We will also read and discuss theoretical and historical concerns.

The course emphasizes student participation. Summative assessment is through class presentation and dissertation work. Students will be expected to contribute regularly and often throughout the year and special emphasis is placed on producing a quality dissertation, critical in nature, extending into the theoretical and historical dimensions of contemporary international law problems. Lent Term in particular focuses on presentation and dissertation-writing.

Following completion of the course, students can expect to have a broad understanding of the historical evolution of global markets, with specific knowledge of how certain commodities have contributed to and shaped the most important international law challenges of our time. Through individual presentations and research projects students are expected to develop critical perspectives on aspects of the topics covered throughout the year as well as hone presentation skills.

At the end of the course, students should be able to demonstrate:

• A broad understanding of the historical rise in trade of global commodities and of its contribution to the development of international law, especially during colonial times.

• An awareness of intersecting legal issues relating to, for example: human rights, trade disputes, law of the sea, laws of war, environmental law, labour, animal welfare and illegal trade.

• An understanding of the impact that historical patterns of production and consumption of commodities around the world have had on contemporary international law structures.

• An appreciation of the critical theory that informs existing scholarly analysis of the trade in global commodities.

20 hours of lectures in the MT. 20 hours of lectures in the LT.

Students will be expected to submit one 2,000-word essay

Fernand Braudel, The Perspective of the World (Civilization and Capitalism), 3 vols. trans. Sian Reynolds (Collins, 1984); Sarah Rose, For All the Tea in China (Arrow Books, 2010); Jean Baudrillard, The Consumer Society (Sage, 1998 [1970]); Duncan Kennedy (1985) 'The Role of Law in Economic Thought: Essays on the Fetishism of Commodities' 34 The American University Law Review 939-1001; Hugo Grotius, The Freedom of the Seas, or the Right Which Belongs to the Dutch to take part in the East Indian Trade [Mare Liberum], trans. Ralph Van Deman Magoffin (Oxford UP, 1916); Alfred Rubin, The Law of Piracy (Naval War College Press, 1988); David Graeber, Debt: the First 5000 Years (Melville House, 2011); Martti Koskenniemi (2011) ‘Empire and International Law: The Real Spanish Contribution’ 61 University of Toronto Law Journal 1-36; Lauren Benton and Benjamin Straumann (2010) ‘Acquiring Empire by Law: From Roman Doctrine to Early Modem European Practice’ 28 Law and History Review 1-37; Richard Tuck, Natural Rights Theories, Cambridge UP (1979); Michel Foucault, Territory, Security, Population (Palgrave, 2009); Anne Orford (2005) ‘Beyond Harmonization: Trade, Human Rights and the Economy of Sacrifice’ 18 Leiden Journal of International Law 179-213; Lorraine Talbot (2013) ‘Why Shareholders Shouldn’t Vote: A Marxist-progressive Critique of Shareholder Empowerment’ 76 Modern Law Review 791-816; Peter Linebaugh and Marcus Rediker, The Many-Headed Hydra: The Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic (Verso 2002); Steven Topik, Carlos Marichal and Zephyr Frank (eds), From Silver to Cocaine: Latin American Commodity Chains and the Building of the World Economy, 1500-2000 (Duke University Press, 2006).

Essay (85%, 8000 words) in the LT and ST.
Project (15%) in the MT and LT.

Summative assessment will be in two parts: 

• 85% for a 6,000-8,000 word long essay (proposal to be submitted in LT)
• 15% for participation in, and presentation of, a research project.