Work-in-Progress: ‘Change: What is it good for?’ – Başak Etkin
Location:
Neil MacCormick Room,
Old College
Date/time
Thu 10 October 2024
15:00-17:00
This is a Work-in-Progress Session organised by the Edinburgh Centre for Legal Theory and given by Başak Etkin from the University of Groningen, in which she will be presenting her paper on ‘Change: What is it good for?’.
Our WiPs consist of a 20-minute presentation given by the author, followed by a 60 to 90-minute Q&A. This is a pre-read event, and the paper will be circulated beforehand through our mailing list. To subscribe, please send an email to edinburgh.legal.theory@gmail.com.
Author bio: Başak Etkin is a PhD candidate at the Transboundary Legal Studies Department of the University of Groningen. Prior to that, she was a teaching and research fellow at Université Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas and hold degrees from Université Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas and Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. She’s the co-creator and co-host of the philosophy of international law podcast, Borderline Jurisprudence.
Abstract: Change in international treaty law is a peculiar phenomenon. It comes in many shapes and forms. There are the formal procedures that lead to content change, such as the adoption of protocols or amendments, but there are informal ways in which change comes about. These happen without any change to the text of the treaty. This phenomenon is yet to be conceptualised by international legal philosophers. Approaching ‘change’ from an empirical standpoint, I propose the following preliminary definition: a shift in the normative content that has been validated. In order to test this definition, I will study four questions: (1) what is changing, (2) why is it changing, (3) how is it changing, and (4) whether it is valid. This will provide a novel account of change in international treaty law.