Adil Hasan Khan’s reflection celebrates Antony Anghie’s formative TWAIL text, drawing on Khan’s presentation at the ‘Imperialism, Sovereignty and the Making of International Law: 20 Years On’ Conference organised by the Laureate Program on Global Corporations and International Law in Naarm/Melbourne on 7 and 8 August 2025.

Recording of Panel Discussion: Almost two years into a genocide that has sought to devastate all Palestinian life in Gaza, this move to conditionally recognize a Palestinian state comes across as a response essentially out of time. While this attempt at redeeming a liberal international legal order is no doubt far too little, far too late, what might a Palestinian national liberation movement tactically salvage and repurpose from this irredeemable wreck, and what should they approach with caution? This panel critically examines this urgent question at a time of immense danger and devastation.

Almost two years into a genocide that has sought to devastate all Palestinian life in Gaza, this move to conditionally recognize a Palestinian state comes across as a response essentially out of time. While this attempt at redeeming a liberal international legal order is no doubt far too little, far too late, what might a Palestinian national liberation movement tactically salvage and repurpose from this irredeemable wreck, and what should they approach with caution? This panel critically examines this urgent question at a time of immense danger and devastation.

Benjamin P. Davis talks to Usha Natarajan about Ben’s book on the inspirational Caribbean poet, Édouard Glissant. What we can learn from Glissant about human rights? What does Glissant mean by the ‘right to opacity’? Is it necessary and possible to know the Other? How do we ‘choose our bearing’ and engage in ethical academic and legal praxis amid neoliberal institutions that are complicit in genocide, famine, violence, and suffering?

What is the role of the (legal) intellectual in social transformation today, amid escalating environmental and economic injustice, and the rise of racist regimes worldwide? How should the tactics of third world anti-imperialists evolve amid the disintegration of US power and the mass suffering inflicted by the death throes of US imperialist and capitalist hegemony? While international laws and institutions have contributed to structuring and reproducing suffering across the global south, what role (if any) can law play towards structuring a world order for peace and ecological stability based on respectful interrelations? Vijay Prashad discussed these issues and more with Usha Natarajan and John Reynolds online on 23 April 2025.