Semester 2 2025 - DUE September 2025; 100%
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Policy Memo: TWAIL, Statehood, Jurisdiction, and
Decolonisation of International Law
Prepared by: Junior Legal Researcher
For: Panel on Decolonising International Law | Foreign Affairs
Department of Illinia
Date: July 2025
1. The TWAIL Movement: Origins, Role, and Objectives
What does TWAIL stand for?
TWAIL stands for Third World Approaches to International
Law.
What informed the development of the TWAIL movement?
TWAIL arose in response to the historical marginalisation and
structural inequalities embedded in the international legal
order that emerged during and after European colonialism.
The movement critiques how international law has historically
served the interests of powerful Western states, particularly
through doctrines like the civilizing mission, the mandate
system, and the use of international institutions to entrench
, global hierarchies. TWAIL scholars argue that the legal
structures governing trade, investment, humanitarian
intervention, and development perpetuate neocolonial
dominance, even after formal independence.
This movement draws intellectual lineage from anti-colonial
leaders, postcolonial theory, and early scholars like Chimni,
Anghie, and Mutua, who observed that international law was
complicit in the violent dispossession and political
disempowerment of the Global South.
Objectives of TWAIL (Third World Approaches to International
Law)
TWAIL scholars seek to:
1. Expose the colonial foundations of international law and
how its doctrines sustained imperial rule.
2. Critique the Eurocentric bias of international legal
institutions like the WTO, IMF, and the UN Security
Council.
3. Reclaim agency for the Global South, advocating for legal
reforms that reflect the values, voices, and
developmental needs of formerly colonised states.
4. Build a solidaristic internationalism, centred on justice,
equality, and inclusion across formerly colonised
societies.