Chapter 5 - International Law, Crisis and Feminist Time

Summary

I begin by confessing a general fascination with the concept of time. I puzzle endlessly over the relationship between time and matter, and the insistence of scientists that before the Big Bang time did not exist. I grapple with the relationship between time and speed, and the fact that if we could travel at the speed of light time would not move. I seek to grasp Stephen Hawking's recent conversion to the view that, in the physical world, time may yet run in reverse. I am intrigued that our concepts of time came to Australia only with the First Fleet, for aboriginal time was cyclical rather than linear. Events could recur, dead people could live again.– Rosalyn Higgins

Time is multifaceted: it is involved in physical processes and social conventions, in the abstract relations of mathematics and concrete relations between people. We measure it in clock-time units and by celestial motion, with the aid of recurrent events and through changes in our bodies. We utilize it as a medium of exchange for goods, services or payment. We use it as a resource of nature, of society, of people, and of institutions … time for us is clearly not exhausted by the clock-time measure.– Barbara Adam

Time remains the central yet forgotten force that motivates and informs the universe, from its most cosmological principles to its most intimate living details.– Elisabeth Grosz

INTRODUCTION

International law has primarily viewed time as functional. Statutes of limitations, the Rule of Inter-Temporal Law and two-year Security Council terms for nonpermanent members all illustrate the practicality of time in the international legal system. Time, however, plays a much more dynamic role. It is inherent to the construction and operation of international law. In spite of its ubiquity, however, time is rarely examined or identified as a tool. This chapter seeks to introduce temporality as an analytical framework in international law.

This chapter confines itself to a specific context within which to derive and apply a temporal analysis: international law's preoccupation with crisis. Legal scholars have widely argued that international law tends to place inordinate emphasis on crises, and can thus be said to adhere to a ‘crisis model’. This model facilitates and contributes to the marginalization of women and their interests.