The Latin American politics of international law: Latin American countries’ engagements with international law and their contradictory impact on the liberal international order

Abstract

Recent studies on international law and liberalism have shown convincingly that both liberal internationalism and international law have played a central role in the international politics of Latin America and that Latin American countries have contributed to the consolidation of multilateralism and the Liberal International Order (LIO). Yet, the connections between the institutionalization of international law and the rise of liberal internationalism in the region have tended to be overlooked. This article examines the genealogy of these connections, focusing on the emergence of two contending legal traditions, a solidarist liberal internationalist tradition and a pluralist and political one. The article argues that the emergence of these opposing legal traditions across the region have had a contradictory impact on the formation of the LIO, contributing to its emergence and consolidation by promoting multilateralism, and to challenging and revising some of its fundamentals when stressing a strong attachment to absolute non-intervention.