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The Utility Of An International Legal Approach To The Jerusalem Question, Davinia Aziz

Davinia Aziz

International law has not acquitted itself well when invoked to assist in the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Imprecisely-articulated claims and interests framed in terms of charges and counter-charges of terrorism, respective rights to self-determination, sovereignty and illegal uses of force fail to capture the complexity of reality. Juxtaposing international law's stencil-like approach to this very complex reality illuminates the law's limitations. The law is inhibited by a restricted recognition of sources of legitimacy, rooted in the ethnocentric secularism of the American and Western European powers controlling its development. This article argues that despite its apparent shortcomings, international law is …