Schwöbel: The Market and Marketing Culture of International Criminal Law

Christine E.J. Schwöbel (Univ. of Liverpool - Law) has posted The Market and Marketing Culture of International Criminal Law (in Critical Approaches to International Criminal Law, C. Schwöbel ed., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

In this chapter, I argue that international criminal law (ICL) is a field committed to growth (its market culture) and branding (its marketing culture) - both central paradigms of neoliberalism. First, drawing on the work of David Harvey, parallels are examined between the means and methods of capital growth and of ICL. I then examine the way in which ICL has placed undue emphasis on image at the expense of substance. This part of the chapter is particularly influenced by Naomi Klein's book on branding titled 'No Logo'. I conclude that ICL's commitment to neoliberalism is strengthening big power-players while claiming to fight them. The very group in whose interest the fight is supposedly being fought (victims of international crime) is seemingly losing out.