ALBA's Left-wing Populism in Conversation with Anghie's ISMIL Book (“‘We, the Peoples of the Earth’: ALBA, Populism and the Making of an Alternative International Law”)

Abstract

<p>In this reflection, we put our work on the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of our America or ‘ALBA’ (for its acronym in Spanish) into conversation with Angie’s book, Imperialism, Sovereignty and the Making of International Law. We argue that, rather than rely heavily on ideas of statehood and sovereignty as their Third World predecessors in the mid-twentieth century did, ALBA has embraced a populist approach to international law, based around claims to represent ‘the people’ or ‘peoples’ of the earth. Through this internationalised form of populism, we contend that ALBA helped to bring about a different way of engaging with international law that is both more participatory and less beholden to the state than the dominant approach to international law. This not only worked to open up international law to historically marginalised groups, but also helped to locate other sources of international legal authority that lie beyond the colonial notion of ‘sovereignty’, offering a possible pathway towards a decolonial international law.</p>