The Question of the Political and the Political Question

Organised by

• Department of Law

This lecture, first given as the 'Annual Marburg Lecture on International Criminal Law', engages with the questions whether international criminal law is political (‘the question of the political’) and how international criminal law engages with the political, and more specifically, the status of the political question doctrine in international criminal law (‘the political question’). I argue that while international criminal law is political and has not shied away from engaging with the political, it can provide only a narrow set of answers. The language of law is at least something, but should not usurp the space for other forms of politics. This then is a warning against expansive interpretations of the logics of legal politics at the expense of other forms of politics.