PSL @ Venezuelan embassy
For the Empire, it is.
No, it isn't. But international law suffers from the fact that it isn't enforced, or that there is even a supreme judicial institution, so it's all just being interpreted willy-nilly by everybody.
International law is just a part of the ideological edifice of empire. It's used as a way of attacking the targets of imperialism. The so-called "liberal rules-based order" only cares about it to that extent, similar to the rhetoric surrounding democracy and human rights.
I agree. But see, this it: pointing out the US violating international law subverts the liberal superstructure. Liberalism can not live without somehow justifying itself by legalism. Fascism doesn't. Fascism claims to be extrajudicial from the start - so attacking libs by pointing out they are violating (admittedly bourgeois) law is great.
US law is international law. There's a reason why everyone claims North Korea is violating every international law but no one says a thing about the US, Saudi Arabia and Israel.
Good insight. Althusser writes about the legal ideological state apparatus extensively – it would be interesting to see an Althusser inspired article applying his arguments beyond the national state level.
Literally the entire UN agrees that Israel is violating international law.
A lot of people accuse the UN of being the mouthpiece of tge US or whatever, but it's really just another arena for geopolitics. When the US was the only game in town, the UN would naturally align more with US interests. Consequently, the future UN will reflect the multipolar international system, and probably become both more chaotic and ineffectual, IMO.