Professor and Director of Research, Jean d’Aspremont, talks about his unexpected discovery and passion for international law and how he contributed to the development of postgraduate course design in this area.

Background

I received my legal education on the Continent as well as in England. After my PhD, I took a research position at New York University before moving to the Netherlands for what was then my first academic position. When I joined The University of Manchester, I had spent seven years of my academic life in the Netherlands, respectively at Leiden University and the University of Amsterdam.

Home of international law

Since my legal studies in England, I had always been fascinated by British academia in general. The University of Manchester particularly attracted me thanks to its strong reputation in international law. Indeed, Manchester had not only been the home of some of the leading international lawyers. It was also the institution where the famous Melland Schill lectures on international law had been held. It felt like an honour to be part of that strong and well-established tradition.

I am a bit embarrassed to say that I came to international law – and later to international legal theory – a bit by accident. I had followed the general course on international law and made a good performance at the exam, which prompted the course director to inquire about my possible interest in a PhD on this topic. And here I am. I embarked on a PhD and never left the university. International law has ever since been populating both my days and my nights.

My research

Whilst in the first decade of my career, I have extensively discussed questions of statehood, of sources of international law and of State responsibility (the latter culminating in the preparation and adoption of new Guiding Principles on Shared Responsibility in In International Law), my research has come to focus on theory and philosophy over the last years. These days, I am particularly interested in the structure of the international legal discourse and all the hidden patterns of thoughts at work in international legal argumentation. For instance, my forthcoming book entitled ‘After Meaning’, claims that meaning is perpetually absent from the forms of the international legal discourse. In the absence of meaning, my book argues, the international lawyers are left with forms, only forms that point away to other forms.

Developing postgraduate study

Iain Scobbie, Yenkong Hodu, and I designed the postgraduate courses on international law (including security and international law) several years ago. Since then, I have always been involved in the teaching of the modules on international law and in the supervision of the research papers and master theses of those students wishing to major in international law. As of September 2021, we will be joined by two new highly motivated and talented colleagues who will bring a whole new expertise to the team. 2021 promises to be a fantastic year for teaching law at The University of Manchester.

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