The Epistemology of the Secret

The first critical inquiry about the epistemology of the secret that dominates international legal thought and practice.

Constitutes the first study of the epistemology of the secret which dominates international law and international practice. It comprises a groundbreaking contribution to critical legal theory and the philosophy of law. Thanks to its historical dimension, it is also of interest for anyone interest in the history of ideas.In this groundbreaking work, Jean d'Aspremont undertakes the first study of the epistemology of the secret of international law, which is a specific intellectual posture whereby international law is considered to be replete with secrets that international lawyers ought to reveal. In addition to arguing that the epistemology of the secret of international law is everywhere at work in international legal thought and practice, d'Aspremont demonstrates why this posture must be scrutinized, given how much it enables certain sayings, thoughts, perceptions and actions while simultaneously disabling others, making it complicit with the worst forms of capitalism, colonialism, racism, bourgeois ideology, phallocentrism, virilism and masculinism. This book should be read by anyone interested in how international law came to do what it does and why it must be rethought.