China was an important participant at the Bandung Conference in 1955;  strong Third Worldist sensibilities are pervasive among the early generation of Chinese international law scholars like Wang Tieya and Chen Tiqiang. However, the current relationship between Chinese international scholars and the scholarship of the Third World Approaches to International Law has been curiously one of mutual disengagement. This in our view is detrimental to both the TWAIL movement and the development of international law as an academic discipline in China and unnecessarily limits political visions about what a more just and equitable global order might and should emerge from current historical conjunctures. With the growing influence and complexity of China’s global identity, we consider a deep examination of China and the TWAIL project a timely exercise. This workshop aims to bring together Chinese scholars interested in TWAIL and TWAIL scholars interested in China to explore modes of mutual engagement and to craft intellectual spaces where both sides interact and generate mutually stimulating insights. This workshop will map China’s position in or vis-a-vis the Third World historically and how this relationship is reflected in Chinese international law scholarship and in TWAIL. We will also consider how this relationship has evolved and may continue evolving in the current historical conjuncture and what implications such evolution has for concepts and political projects such as Third World solidarity and anti-imperialism. 

Convenor: Dr. Wanshu Cong (ANU Law School), Prof. Yifeng Chen (PKU Law School), Yilin Wang (University of Macao, law school)

There are a small number of places remaining for engaged participants. Those interested in attending should contact wanshu.cong@anu.edu.au