The Experiences of International Organizations: A Phenomenological Approach to International Institutional Law

This groundbreaking book uses the idea of experience to investigate the various ways in which international organizations are understood and captured by judges, legal practitioners, legal researchers, legal theorists, and thinkers of global governance.

Adopting a unique phenomenological approach, Jean d’Aspremont questions the key patterns of thought that inform the legal practice of international organizations, arguing that said organizations are the product of five specific experiences: affection, insulation, edification, restriction, and conciliation. Through this critical lens, d’Aspremont highlights the limits of the current conceptualizations of international organizations which populate legal practice and legal literature. In doing so, the book crucially develops contemporary discourse on how international lawyers build their claims about the status, rights, duties, responsibilities, failures and falls of international organizations; and assesses how international organizations are thought about in relation to international law, international relations and studies of global governance.

Insightful and thought-provoking, this distinct approach will be a fundamental resource for researchers, scholars and theorists in law and politics, legal theory, international relations and public international law. Professionals and practitioners working in these sectors will also find this book an enlightening read.