Third World Approaches to International Law

Third World approaches to international law is a critical school of international legal scholarship and an intellectual and political movement. It is a "broad dialectic opposition to international law", which perceives international law as facilitating the continuing exploitation of the Third World through subordination to the West. TWAIL scholars (known as TWAIL-ers) seek to change what they identify as international law's oppressive aspects, through the re-examination of the colonial foundations of international law. History Early origins (Generation I) TWAIL was inspired by the decolonization movements that occurred after World War II in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Symbolically, the conference held in Bandung, Indonesia, in 1955 is seen as the birthplace of TWAIL, as it was the first attempt by African and Asian states to create a coalition to address the issues specific to the Third World. TWAIL came about to address the material and ethical concerns as well as hardships of the Third World. New age movement (Generation II)