Book contents
- Anticolonialism and Social Thought
- LSE International Studies
- Anticolonialism and Social Thought
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Activists, Intellectuals, and Movements
- 1 Genealogies of Anticolonialism
- 2 Anticolonialism and National Liberation
- 3 An Anticolonial Critique of Sovereignty
- 4 Decolonization as Transformation
- 5 Revolutionary Women’s Praxis to Bury Colonialism, 1945–1949
- Part II Schools of Thought
- Part III Dissident Sociologists
- Part IV On Method
- Index
- References
3 - An Anticolonial Critique of Sovereignty
Radhabinod Pal on War and International Order
from Part I - Activists, Intellectuals, and Movements
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 September 2025
By
Book contents
- Anticolonialism and Social Thought
- LSE International Studies
- Anticolonialism and Social Thought
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Activists, Intellectuals, and Movements
- 1 Genealogies of Anticolonialism
- 2 Anticolonialism and National Liberation
- 3 An Anticolonial Critique of Sovereignty
- 4 Decolonization as Transformation
- 5 Revolutionary Women’s Praxis to Bury Colonialism, 1945–1949
- Part II Schools of Thought
- Part III Dissident Sociologists
- Part IV On Method
- Index
- References
Summary
This chapter explores an anticolonial critique of emerging postwar international jurisprudence particularly as it pertains to war, using the dissenting opinion of Indian jurist Radhabinod Pal during the Tokyo Trials as a case study. Pal’s critique of Allied uses of sovereignty and international law reflected a larger concern with the ongoing legacy of colonialism in the postwar era, with Pal’s concern being that both continuities and discontinuities in international law continued to maintain unequal relations of power that shape the international order. Pal challenged the conclusions of the other judges at the Tokyo Trials by asserting that the world had not yet become an international society that could truly adopt international criminal law in a just sense. While Pal’s approach to sovereignty and international law contains various challenges and is not a simple prescription that could be easily applied, his dynamic and ambitious vision aimed to equalize the world and therefore represents an aspirational anticolonialism that was lost in subsequent generations of Third World lawyering.
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- Anticolonialism and Social Thought , pp. 69 - 90Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
References
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