International Law as Intimate Enemy

Abstract

The metaphor intimate enemy best captures the changing nature of international law vis-a-vis nations. Intimate enemy is a useful heuristic device that could be deployed to capture legal concepts of indeterminacy, dialectics, and reformulation within international law. In order to prove this thesis, this Article discusses international humanitarian law, international economic law, and international criminal law. More precisely, this Article will take up “war on terror,” laws of Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs), and the law of regional unions such as the European Union (EU) and the African Union (AU) to explicate the claims made. Across the board, this Article claims that an intimate animosity is on display.This Article invites scholars and researchers of international law to use intimate enemy as a new hermeneutics to unpack the real relationship of countries and international law.