The standard of civilisation in international law

Abstract

The cover of Ntina Tzouvala's new book depicts a Goddess floating ethereally in her white dress over a landscape of colonial settlement. On the ground below her, we see prairie wagons and cowboy settlers moving through yellow fields, probably in North America, probably in the 18th or 19th century. As I pick up the book, I imagine this floating figure to be Justitia, the Goddess of Justice. The look on her face is mild and benevolent. When I search a bit on the internet, I learn that, in fact, the heavenly lady on the cover is an allegorical representation of Manifest Destiny, the idea that settlers in the United States were leading civilisation westwards. She is shown bringing light and progress from East to West, stringing telegraph wire and holding a book, highlighting different stages of economic activity and evolving forms of transportation. The metaphor seems clear from the outset: International law has always accompanied settler colonialism and capitalist expansion.