An Inquiry into the Turkish 'School' of International Law

This paper seeks to examine major Turkish textbooks of publicinternational law, focusing particularly on a small number ofcore areas in this discipline: historical origins and basicfeatures; formal sources; main subjects; the law of territory;international law and development. These textbooks show a stronginclination towards Eurocentrism and positivism due to theirdenial of the vigour of ‘soft law’, as manifestedfor instance in UN General Assembly resolutions, and of theirmarginal treatment of ‘international law and development’.What is more, substantive issues of international law are notdiscussed in a critical way; rather the procedures of the disciplineare given priority. This is almost to suggest that Turkish internationallaw scholars hold the view that their raison d’êtreis confined to ‘technical expertise’, and that therelationship between law, other disciplines and society liesoutside their domain. In the final analysis, therefore, thehard core of issues integral to international law and havinga deep impact on international politics, such as the searchfor a New International Economic Order (NIEO), the principleof self-determination and human rights are either entirely bypassedor treated only very narrowly in Turkish international law textbooks.