Queering International Law Possibilities, Alliances, Complicities, Risks

This ground-breaking collection reflects the growing momentum of interest in the international legal community in meshing the insights of queer legal theory with those critical theories that have a much longer genealogy – notably postcolonial and feminist analyses. Beyond the push in the human rights field to ensure respect for the rights of people with diverse sexual orientations and gender identities, queer legal theory provides a means to examine the structural assumptions and conceptual architecture that underpin the normative framework and operation of international law, highlighting bias and blind spots and offering fresh perspectives and practical innovations. The contributors to the bookuse queer legal theory to critically analyse the basic tenets and operations of international law, with many surprising, thought-provoking and instructive results. The volume will be of interest to many scholars, students and researchers in international law, international relations, cultural studies, gender studies, queer studies and postcolonial studies.

Introduction Embracing Queer Curiosity Dianne Otto Part I Complicities: Sexuality, Coloniality and Governance 1. A Tale of Two Atonements Rahul Rao 2. ‘Dangerous Desires’: Illegality, Sexuality, and the Global Governance of Artisanal MiningDoris Buss and Blair Rutherford 3. The Anatomy of Neoliberal Internet Governance: A Queer Critical Political Economy Perspective Monika Zalnieriute Part II Possibilities: Rethinking Violence, War and Law 4. International Law as Violence: Competing Absences of the OtherVanja Hamzic 5. The Maintenance of International Peace and Security Heteronormativity Tamsin Phillipa Paige 6. In Spite: Testifying to Sexual and Gender Based Violence during the Khmer Rouge periodMaria Elander Part III Alliances: Making Queer Lives Matter 7. The Im/possibility of Queering Human Rights Ratna Kapur 8. Homoglobalism: The Emergence of Global Gay Governance Aeyal Gross 9. Governing (Trans)Parenthood – The Tenacious hold of Biological Connection and Heterosexuality Anniken Sørlie Part IVRisks: Troubling Statehood, Sovereignty and its Borders 10. Queer Border Crossers: Pragmatic Complicities, Indiscretions and Subversions Bina Fernandez 11. Queering International Law’s Stories of Origin: Hospitality and Homophobia Nan Seuffert 12. Resisting the Heteronormative Imaginary of the Nation State: Rethinking Kinship and Border Protection Diane Otto

Professor Dianne Ottoheld the Francine V McNiff Chair in Human Rights Law at the University of Melbourne Law School, Australia, 2013–2016. She is currently a Professorial Fellow at Melbourne Law School.