LCP4801 – INTERNATIONAL LAW UNISA
Assignment 2 SEMESTER 2 2025
DETAILED ANSWERS, SOLUTIONS and
References
100% PASS RATE
, QUESTION 1
1.1 TWAIL stands for Third World Approaches to International Law. 1
1.2 The development of TWAIL was informed by the illegitimacy of international law
which Mutua scholars described as a predatory system which advocated for the
plunder and subordination of the Third World by the West and in response, TWAIL
is a movement responding to international law’s imperial character.2 Secondly,
TWAIL draws from the historical continuation of resistance, standing on the
shoulders of decolonisation movements post-World War II such as the Bandug
and the Group 77 which challenged Western domination.3 Scholars like Hugo
Grotius and Lassa Francis Lawrence Oppenheim were of the position that
international law, despite its universality status has European and Christian roots.4
This position, a Eurocentric one, justified colonialism through concepts such as
sovereignty and this informed the development of TWAIL and its opposition to
traditional international law.5 After World War II, political independence was largely
illusory as Third World states remained politically, legally and economically
bonded to the West and this realisation shaped TWAIL.6 The economic
marginalization of Third World states by Bretton Woods’s institutions (World Bank,
IMF, and GATT) and later the World Trade Organization (WTO) significantly
informed TWAIL’s development.7 These institutions, along with crushing debt
advanced to undemocratic regimes, ensured continued Western control over Third
World economies, prompting TWAIL’s advocacy for initiatives like the New
International Economic Order (NIEO) by the Group of 77.8
1.3 The three objectives of TWAIL are the following;
- To comprehend, deconstruct and unpack the way in which international law
was used as a tool to create and perpetuate a racialized hierarchy of
international; norms and situations that subordinate non-Europeans to
Europeans.9
1
Polina Finney, Only Study Guide for International Law, (University of South Africa, 2018) 47.
2 Makau Mutua, What is TWAIL?, (American Society of International Law Proceedings, 2000) 2.
3 Makau Mutua, What is TWAIL 32.
4 Makau Mutua, What is TWAIL 33.
5 Makau Mutua, What is TWAIL 33.
6 Makau Mutua, What is TWAIL 35.
7 Makau Mutua, What is TWAIL 37.
8 Makau Mutua, What is TWAIL 37.
9 Makau Mutua, What is TWAIL 31
Assignment 2 SEMESTER 2 2025
DETAILED ANSWERS, SOLUTIONS and
References
100% PASS RATE
, QUESTION 1
1.1 TWAIL stands for Third World Approaches to International Law. 1
1.2 The development of TWAIL was informed by the illegitimacy of international law
which Mutua scholars described as a predatory system which advocated for the
plunder and subordination of the Third World by the West and in response, TWAIL
is a movement responding to international law’s imperial character.2 Secondly,
TWAIL draws from the historical continuation of resistance, standing on the
shoulders of decolonisation movements post-World War II such as the Bandug
and the Group 77 which challenged Western domination.3 Scholars like Hugo
Grotius and Lassa Francis Lawrence Oppenheim were of the position that
international law, despite its universality status has European and Christian roots.4
This position, a Eurocentric one, justified colonialism through concepts such as
sovereignty and this informed the development of TWAIL and its opposition to
traditional international law.5 After World War II, political independence was largely
illusory as Third World states remained politically, legally and economically
bonded to the West and this realisation shaped TWAIL.6 The economic
marginalization of Third World states by Bretton Woods’s institutions (World Bank,
IMF, and GATT) and later the World Trade Organization (WTO) significantly
informed TWAIL’s development.7 These institutions, along with crushing debt
advanced to undemocratic regimes, ensured continued Western control over Third
World economies, prompting TWAIL’s advocacy for initiatives like the New
International Economic Order (NIEO) by the Group of 77.8
1.3 The three objectives of TWAIL are the following;
- To comprehend, deconstruct and unpack the way in which international law
was used as a tool to create and perpetuate a racialized hierarchy of
international; norms and situations that subordinate non-Europeans to
Europeans.9
1
Polina Finney, Only Study Guide for International Law, (University of South Africa, 2018) 47.
2 Makau Mutua, What is TWAIL?, (American Society of International Law Proceedings, 2000) 2.
3 Makau Mutua, What is TWAIL 32.
4 Makau Mutua, What is TWAIL 33.
5 Makau Mutua, What is TWAIL 33.
6 Makau Mutua, What is TWAIL 35.
7 Makau Mutua, What is TWAIL 37.
8 Makau Mutua, What is TWAIL 37.
9 Makau Mutua, What is TWAIL 31
