That we consider the state-based system as best representing the individual
is the product of a particular world view. A ‘naturalized myth’ renders
inevitable the link between the physicality of the observable landscape and the state
as a means of organizing a polity. This myth lingers on in international legal
scholarship, although it has been debunked in other disciplines, notably in critical
political geography. (Public) international lawyers can learn from their brethren in
other disciplines and problematize the territorial state as a contingent political
concept. Awareness of the social production of space may allow lawyers to imagine
practices of resistance to the spatial status quo, in particular rights of non-state
actors in the production of international law, alongside states, and obligations and
responsibilities of non-state actors, especially where states have proved unable to
properly assume roles of protection vis-a` -vis individuals under their formal
jurisdiction.

EB00000004065K			Available
EB00000004066K			Available

• Non-State Actors in International Law: A Rejoinder to Professor Thirlway