35: David Kennedy – Law as a Global Terrain of Struggle

Professor David Kennedy is the Manley O. Hudson Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Institute for Global Law and Policy at Harvard Law School. Described by prominent historian Samuel Moyn as “the single most important innovator in international legal thought of the past several decades,” David is renowned for his penetrating and critical analysis of the place of law in global governance. He is the author of numerous books and articles exploring issues of global governance, human rights, development policy and the nature of professional expertise.

His most recent book with Harvard University Press, Of Law and the World, is a searching dialogue between himself and close associate and renowned critical legal scholar in his own right, Professor Martti Koskenniemi: https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674290785

In this conversation we talk about a political economy approach to global governance, what international law has got to do with it, experts and lawyers as “governors,” the role of critical scholarship, and much, much more.

David can be found here: https://hls.harvard.edu/faculty/david-w-kennedy/

We discussed:

A World of Struggle: How Power, Law and Expertise Shape Global Political Economy, Princeton University Press (2016): https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691146782/a-world-of-struggle

Interview with David Kennedy, “Global Governance in Crisis Time,” 25 June 2020: https://www.centeronnationalsecurity.org/vital-interests-issue-37-david-kennedy

“The mystery of global governance,” Ohio Northern University Law Review, vol. 34 (2008): http://iglp.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Kennedy_GlobalGovernance.pdf

The Rights of Spring: A Memoir of Innocence Abroad, Princeton University Press (2009): https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691141381/the-rights-of-spring