Behind the Scenes
Writing More Diverse Textbooks on International Law and Human Rights
26 April 2024
Notwithstanding considerable academic scholarship on more diverse and inclusive teaching of international law, less attention is paid to the textbooks and learning material that underpin our teaching practices. In light of the recent publication of the new textbook Public International Law: A Multi-Perspective Approach edited by Sué González-Hauck, Raffaela Kunz and Max Milas (Taylor and Francis, 2024), the Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC) hosted a workshop to discuss the potentials and difficulties in writing more diverse textbooks on international law and human rights law.
The textbook started off as the first public international law textbook written using Wikimedia Foundation’s open platform, Wikibooks, and grew into the first Open Access textbook on public international law.
The textbook adopts a multi-perspective approach in terms of intellectual approaches, gender and regional representation.
It also engages with themes and topics that are not typically covered in public international law textbooks, including a part on history, theory and methods, and chapters, for example, on international migration law and international climate regime.
The HRLC was delighted to have been joined by the editors of the textbook: Sué González-Hauck (DeZIM Institute, Germany), Raffaela Kunz (University of Zurich, Switzerland) and Max Milas (University of Münster, Germany).
We were also joined by many of the authors of the chapter on human rights law including: Thamil Ananthavinayagan (Department of Justice, Ireland), Walter Arévalo-Ramírez (University of Rosario, Colombia), Grazyna Baranowska (Hertie School, Germany), Annalisa Ciampi (University of Verona, Italy), Verena Kahl (Hamburg University, Germany), Jens Theilen (Helmut-Schmidt University, Germany), and HRLC Deputy Director, Mando Rachovitsa.
Sangeeta Shah (University of Nottingham) and Elena Abrusci (Brunel University) served as discussants. The event was chaired by HRLC Director, Aoife Nolan.
You can view a recording of the event here: