Claerwen O'Hara – författare

Consensus in International Law: Critical History, Queer Reimaginings critically explores the idea of 'consensus' by retracing its history in two settings: in consensus decision-making in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and World Trade Organisation, and the European Court of Human Rights' use of 'European consensus' as a method of treaty interpretation. Employing a unique theoretical framework informed by queer theory and jurisdictional thinking, the book argues that consensus in international law is best understood as a technique of authorization, which functions by gesturing towards a widespread, yet unfixed, level of agreement.Claerwen O'Hara demonstrates that the gesture towards widespread agreement works to imbue institutional practices with an air of equality and project visions of unity onto a decision, helping to ground the authority of international institutions and their legal worlds. At the same time, the variable nature of the agreement means that the idea of consensus can be applied flexibly, including in situations in which no such equality or unity exists. Consequently, despite the positive discourses surrounding the idea of consensus in international law, it has often worked to suppress difference and dissent and uphold existing power relations. The book suggests that this gap between discourse and reality has been a contributing factor in some of the problems facing international law and its institutions today. To overcome these problems, Consensus in International Law calls for a shift in imagination in which the idea of the world or a particular region routinely reaching a widespread agreement is decentred in international law. In its place, the book proposes a vision of the international as a 'meeting place' for a plurality of peoples and their laws.

This book focuses on queer people and their encounters with international law.Traversing a wide range of topics, from trans discrimination and conversion therapy to sadomasochism and abolitionism, this book asks questions about the (im)possibility of freedom and equality for queer communities in the world and the role that different areas of international law have to play in such a pursuit. It considers how queer lives and bodies are rendered legible or illegible to the law through how we define concepts such as ‘gender [identity]’ or ‘private life’. It also reflects on whether legal activism focused on LGBTIQA+ rights can ever reflect the insights of queer theory. The book engages with new issues in international law, such as recent contestation over the meaning of ‘gender’ in international human rights law and international criminal law. It also showcases the diversity of approaches to queering international law that are emerging. While some chapters offer a critique of international law’s violent and exclusionary tendencies, others re-invest in international law as a tool in the struggle for queer liberation by seeking to re-imagine it in queer directions. The questions addressed in this book are wide-ranging and approached differently by the authors. However, all centre on the complex relationship between international law, queer theory, and queer lives and what the future holds for these encounters going forward.This collection of queer encounters with international law will be invaluable to scholars of international law, human rights, and international relations with an interest in critical approaches to these areas, as well as to researchers, activists, and practitioners working in cultural, gender, and sexuality studies.