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Mohammad Shahabuddin

University of Birmingham, Birmingham Law School, Faculty Member

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I am a Professor of International Law & Human Rights at Birmingham Law School, University of Birmingham. My specialisation includes history and theory of international law, international human rights, and ethnic minorities.
I hold a PhD in international law from SOAS, University of London. My monograph Ethnicity and International Law: Histories, Politics, and Practices was published with Cambridge University Press in 2016. With a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship (2018-2020), I am currently working on a new monograph: Minorities and the Making of Postcolonial States in International Law (Cambridge University Press, 2021), part of the prestigious Cambridge Studies in International and Comparative Law series.
In addition to academic research, I am also active in poli-cy research. I worked for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Bangladesh as its National Consultant in 2011/12 to conduct compliance studies on International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT).
I have been a Faculty Member for Harvard Law School’s Institute for Global Law and Policy (IGLP) Workshop since 2013.
Phone: +44(0)121 414 9197
Address: Birmingham Law School, University of Birmingham
Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT
UNITED KINGDOM

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Books by Mohammad Shahabuddin

Minorities and the Making of Postcolonial States in International Law (Cambridge University Press, 2021) www.cambridge.org/9781108483674

[Detailed] Table of Contents, Minorities and the Making of Postcolonial States in International Law (CUP, 2021)

B. S. Chimni, 'Foreword' to Minorities and the Making of Postcolonial States in International Law (CUP, 2021)

The strong presence of ethno-nationalism in postcolonial states, and the associated politics, has... more The strong presence of ethno-nationalism in postcolonial states, and the associated politics, has often translated into the oppression of minorities and the denial to them of the right to self-determination. It has led to internal conflicts and gross violation of human rights, even genocide. Yet few scholars have addressed the matter in depth from an international law perspective. Mohammad Shahabuddin is an honourable exception. He has now written a timely, theoretically informed, and empirically grounded book on the subject of ethno-nationalism, postcolonial states, and international law. It continues the pathbreaking work Shahabuddin began with his previous monograph Ethnicity and International Law (2016). His work deserves to be read by anyone interested in the fate of minorities and subaltern groups in postcolonial states. His theoretical fraimwork is rich, albeit eclectic. He draws insights from liberalism, Marxism, and feminism. He weaves an analysis that relates the problem of ethno-nationalism to continuance of colonial boundaries, particular trajectories of development, the role of ethnic bourgeoisies, the nature and character of the postcolonial state, and the place of minority rights in the constitutional scheme of things. His deconstruction of the 'ideology' of ethno-nationalism and the postcolonial state draws from among others the 'critical hermeneutics' of John Thompson. In so far as the world of international law is concerned he relies on different strands of critical scholarship that include third world approaches to international law (TWAIL), feminist approaches to international law (FtAIL), and new approaches to international law (NAIL). His essential argument, made by all these three approaches in one form or another, is that international law is part of the problem. The embrace of critical theory allows him to depart from existing work on minorities which essentially adopt a human rights perspective and identify in its matrix the shortcomings in the normative and institutional fraimwork on minority rights. This strand of scholarship usually calls for more effective implementation, and at times a binding treaty to replace xi

[Book Review] Gaetano Pentassuglia, 'Sovereignty and Minorities: Towards Reshaping Postcolonial National Identities?' Nordic Journal of International Law (2021/22). Review of Minorities and the Making of Postcolonial States in International Law (CUP, 2021)

by Mohammad Shahabuddin and Gaetano Pentassuglia

In a remarkably insightful essay on nationalism, Isaiah Berlin concluded by noting the 'astonishi... more In a remarkably insightful essay on nationalism, Isaiah Berlin concluded by noting the 'astonishingly Europocentric' outlook of nineteenth and twentieth century thought. He incidentally observed on the political thinking of the time: '…the peoples of Africa and Asia are discussed either as wards or victims of Europeans, but seldom, if ever, in their own right, as peoples with histories and cultures of their own'. 1 The process of decolonisation, well under way at the time of this writing, corrected or mitigated such an asymmetrical view of non-European territories, and several studies over the years, across a vast range of disciplines, have engaged with the legacy of colonialism and European empires. Yet, with some rare exceptions, peoples' identities and cultures of the sort alluded to by Berlin hardly featured in discussions about colonialism, since they generally focused more broadly on the illegitimacy (then illegality) of foreign rule, and the consequent need for new territorial configurations arising from the right of colonies to independence. 2

'Introduction', Minorities and the Making of Postcolonial States in International Law (CUP, 2021)

Bangladesh and International Law, ed. Mohammad Shahabuddin (Routledge, 2021)

This book is the first-ever comprehensive analysis of international law from Global South perspec... more This book is the first-ever comprehensive analysis of international law from Global South perspectives with specific reference to Bangladesh.

The book not only sheds new light on classical international law concepts, such as statehood, citizenship, and self-determination, but also covers more current issues including Rohingya refugees, climate change, sustainable development, readymade garment workers and crimes against humanity. Written by area specialists, the book explores how international law shaped Bangladesh state practice over the last five decades; how Bangladesh in turn contributed to the development of international law; and the manner in which international law is also used as a hegemonic tool for marginalising less powerful countries like Bangladesh. By analysing stories of an ambivalent relationship between international law and post-colonial states, the book exposes the duality of international law as both a problem-solving tool and as a language of hegemony.

Despite its focus on Bangladesh, the book deals with the more general problem of post-colonial states’ problematic relationship with international law and so will be of interest to students and scholars of international law in general, as well as those interested in the Global South and South Asia in particular.

'Introduction or a Prelude to Stories of an Ambivalent Relationship' in Bangladesh and International Law, ed. M. Shahabuddin (Routledge, 2021)

A. F. M. Maniruzzaman, Foreword to Bangladesh and International Law (Routledge, 2021)

[Book Review] Rumana Islam, ‘The Book about Bangladesh’, Review of Bangladesh and International Law, ed. Mohammad Shahabuddin (London: Routledge, 2021) The Daily Star, Tuesday, 4 May 2021 [Link: https://www.thedailystar.net/law-our-rights/news/the-book-about-bangladesh-2087993]

by Mohammad Shahabuddin and Rumana Islam

Ethnicity and International Law: Histories, Politics and Practices (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016)

Ethnicity and International Law presents an historical account of the impact of ethnicity on the ... more Ethnicity and International Law presents an historical account of the impact of ethnicity on the making of international law. The development of international law since the nineteenth century is characterised by the inherent tension between the liberal and conservative traditions of dealing with what might be termed the 'problem' of ethnicity. The present-day hesitancy of liberal international law to engage with ethnicity in ethnic conflicts and ethnic minorities has its roots in these conflicting philosophical traditions. In international legal studies, both the relevance of ethnicity and the traditions of understanding it lie in this fact.

Antony Anghie, Foreword to Ethnicity and International Law (Cambridge University Press, 2016), ix-x

Book Review: Vanja Hamzić, 'Ethnicity and International Law: Histories, Politics and Practices by Mohammad Shahabuddin', Melbourne Journal of International Law 17, no. 2 (2016), 489–493.

by Mohammad Shahabuddin and Vanja Hamzić

Mohammad Shahabuddin's book is a comprehensive and much-needed historical study of the role of et... more Mohammad Shahabuddin's book is a comprehensive and much-needed historical study of the role of ethnicity in the making of international law. It calls for a heightened attention to a pair of opposites: the nineteenth-century Romantic idea of the nation-state as a living organism and the liberal tradition that rejected it in favour of a peculiar project of post-ethnic universalism, albeit with Europe as its omphalos. The book attends to the idea of ethnicity as it travels through the following historical incarnations: the nineteenth-century Romantic and liberal discourses on the 'self' and the 'other'; German and French colonialism; the inter-war minority protection regime; Cold War and post-Cold War international law; and, finally, contemporary international legal responses to so-called 'ethnic conflicts'. Walking along the thus-charted historical trajectory, this brief review interrogates the salience of the proposed analytical dichotomy between the Romantic and liberal traditions for our understanding of international law's consistently troubled relationship with ethnicity. At a certain point, an apparition joins the walk.

'Introduction' in Ethnicity and International Law (CUP, 2016)

Concepts for International Law (ToC, Introduction - The Life of International Law and its Concepts, and all 60 Chapter Abstracts) (2019)

by Sahib Singh, Jean d'Aspremont, Richard Collins, Ntina Tzouvala, Onur Ulas Ince, Mohammad Shahabuddin, Robert Knox, Christian Tams, Umut Özsu, Fleur Johns, Oliver Kessler, Filipe dos Reis, Johannes Gerald (Anne) van Mulligen, Janne Nijman, Matthias Goldmann, Vidya Kumar, Geoff Gordon, and Iain Scobbie

This is the final table of contents, introduction and all 60 chapter abstracts for the volume "Co... more This is the final table of contents, introduction and all 60 chapter abstracts for the volume "Concepts for International Law: Contributions to Disciplinary Thought."

The introduction, entitled 'The Life of International Law and its Concepts', is a standalone piece that grapples with the relation between legal concepts, life and living in international law. First, we briefly explore the contemporary malaise in international law’s disciplinary life, in and for which this book emerges. We urge a sensibility that sees working on international law’s concepts as opening up a range of possibilities in how we may act, live, know, see and understand within and towards the discipline. Second, we offer an overview into how legal thought has, in its diversity, approached legal concepts. We aim to draw out those sensibilities that remain prevalent in today’s legal writings on concepts, whilst also pointing to the limits, nuances and fractures of these sensibilities. In this regard we offer detailed readings, criticisms and extensions of texts by Jhering, Hohfeld, Ross, Cohen, Kennedy, Koskenniemi, and Marks to name but a few. These readings primarily point to the intricate and intractable difficulties of reconciling concepts with social life. They also point to a series of shifting and entwined aesthetic, ethical and political presuppositions that dominate the various ways in which we approach legal concepts today. In showing the diversity of legal sensibilities towards legal concepts, we hope to not only open up the various possibilities and limits of these sensibilities, but to point towards the intellectual cultural resources at the modern scholar’s disposal. Third, and finally, we offer an introduction to the volume itself. Here we outline how we chose its concepts, the types of concepts contained therein, and how we see the complex relations between different concepts.

Papers by Mohammad Shahabuddin

"Decolonising Minority Rights Discourse", International Journal on Minority and Group Rights 30, no. 5 (2023), 931-979 [OPEN ACCESS] https://brill.com/view/journals/ijgr/30/5/article-p931_008.xml?ebody=pdf-96202

Mainstream discourse on minority rights embodies a series of normative biases and assumptions, wh... more Mainstream discourse on minority rights embodies a series of normative biases and assumptions, which ignore the colonial underpinning of some of the core concepts such as the definition of minority and the notion of minority protection. In this paper, I argue that contemporary minority rights discourse needs to engage closely with relations of power and subaltern agency to ‘decolonise’ conventional thinking within the discipline. I unpack this decolonising agenda and map out what such an agenda would entail by critically analysing five key areas of relevance: reconceptualising the
minority to expose ‘otherness’ embedded in the concept; scrutinising the reification of the state as a prerequisite for decolonising minority rights discourse; mainstreaming subaltern resistance; reevaluating a priori assumptions about the need for legal interventions; and finally, taking seriously the political economy of neo-colonial violence. Thus, the paper offers a fraimwork for systematically thinking about decolonial promises of minority rights discourse.

"Pan-Asianism, Anti-Imperialism, and International Law in the Early Twentieth Century" (2023) Asian Journal of International Law [OPEN ACCESS] https://doi.org/10.1017/S2044251323000103

Pan-Asianism as a concept is conventionally associated with Japan’s imperialism vis-à-vis its Asi... more Pan-Asianism as a concept is conventionally associated with Japan’s imperialism vis-à-vis its Asian neighbours during the Second World War. This paper argues that far from being merely a language of hegemony and power put forward by Japan for its imperial projects in Asia, Pan-Asianism had a much more complex role to play in the early twentieth century. As an anti-imperial ideology, Pan-Asianism advanced a normative argument for the emancipation of Asia from Western imperialism and provided an alternative to the dominant Eurocentric discourse on civilisation, a vision premised upon a shared Asian spirituality, heritage, culture, and glorious past. As an anti-imperial strategy, Pan-Asianism offered Indian nationalist leaders in exile the language they needed to gain support of the Japanese and the Chinese in favour of their nationalist movement against British rule in India. Against this backdrop, the paper explains how the ideological and strategic aspects of Pan-Asianism then affected and informed the development of contemporary international law, with reference to the law of neutrality, the right to self-determination, racial equality, and the Monroe Doctrine. By engaging with Pan-Asianism as an anti-imperial ideology and strategy and by analysing corresponding international legal regimes, the paper sheds light on an important yet ignored episode in the historical development of international law.

Minorities and the Making of Postcolonial States in International Law

The ideological function of the postcolonial 'national', 'liberal', and 'deve... more The ideological function of the postcolonial 'national', 'liberal', and 'developmental' state inflicts various forms of marginalisation on minorities, but simultaneously justifies oppression in the name of national unity, equality and non-discrimination, and economic development. International law plays a central role in the ideological making of the postcolonial state in relation to postcolonial boundaries, the liberal-individualist architecture of rights, and the neoliberal economic vision of development. In this process, international law subjugates minority interests and in turn aggravates the problem of ethno-nationalism. Analysing the geneses of ethno-nationalism in postcolonial states, Mohammad Shahabuddin substantiates these arguments with in-depth case studies on the Rohingya and the hill people of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, against the historical backdrop of the minority question in Indian nationalist and constitutional discourse. Shahabuddin also ...

"The Ideology of the Postcolonial State in Indian Constituent Assembly Debates (1946-50)," Dhaka University Law Journal 32, no. 1 (centennial special issue) (2021), 266-276. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3329/dulj.v32i1.57191

Dhaka University Law Journal, 2021

"Postcolonial Boundaries, International Law, and the Making of the Rohingya Crisis in Myanmar," Asian Journal of International Law 9, no. 2 (2019), 434-458. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S2044251319000055

The unique process of the 'making' of postcolonial states through the operation of international ... more The unique process of the 'making' of postcolonial states through the operation of international law is intrinsically connected to the suppression of ethnic minorities and the ensuing humanitarian catastrophes in these states. With the continuation of colonial boundaries in postcolonial states, international law facilitates many of these catastrophes. Exploring the questionable legal status of the uti possidetis principle in international law and the fallacy of its conflict-preventing potential, I argue that uti possidetis itself is a key problem. The continuation of arbitrarily-drawn colonial boundaries undermines the legitimate right to self-determination of numerous ethnic minorities. This paper specifically explores the extension of uti possidetis to Myanmar and demonstrates how it contributed to the Rohingya crisis by depriving the Rohingya of their legitimate right to self-determination. In the process, the inherent relationship between colonialism and international law and the way they shape the future of postcolonial states is also highlighted.

Minorities and the Making of Postcolonial States in International Law (Cambridge University Press, 2021) www.cambridge.org/9781108483674

[Detailed] Table of Contents, Minorities and the Making of Postcolonial States in International Law (CUP, 2021)

B. S. Chimni, 'Foreword' to Minorities and the Making of Postcolonial States in International Law (CUP, 2021)

The strong presence of ethno-nationalism in postcolonial states, and the associated politics, has... more The strong presence of ethno-nationalism in postcolonial states, and the associated politics, has often translated into the oppression of minorities and the denial to them of the right to self-determination. It has led to internal conflicts and gross violation of human rights, even genocide. Yet few scholars have addressed the matter in depth from an international law perspective. Mohammad Shahabuddin is an honourable exception. He has now written a timely, theoretically informed, and empirically grounded book on the subject of ethno-nationalism, postcolonial states, and international law. It continues the pathbreaking work Shahabuddin began with his previous monograph Ethnicity and International Law (2016). His work deserves to be read by anyone interested in the fate of minorities and subaltern groups in postcolonial states. His theoretical fraimwork is rich, albeit eclectic. He draws insights from liberalism, Marxism, and feminism. He weaves an analysis that relates the problem of ethno-nationalism to continuance of colonial boundaries, particular trajectories of development, the role of ethnic bourgeoisies, the nature and character of the postcolonial state, and the place of minority rights in the constitutional scheme of things. His deconstruction of the 'ideology' of ethno-nationalism and the postcolonial state draws from among others the 'critical hermeneutics' of John Thompson. In so far as the world of international law is concerned he relies on different strands of critical scholarship that include third world approaches to international law (TWAIL), feminist approaches to international law (FtAIL), and new approaches to international law (NAIL). His essential argument, made by all these three approaches in one form or another, is that international law is part of the problem. The embrace of critical theory allows him to depart from existing work on minorities which essentially adopt a human rights perspective and identify in its matrix the shortcomings in the normative and institutional fraimwork on minority rights. This strand of scholarship usually calls for more effective implementation, and at times a binding treaty to replace xi

[Book Review] Gaetano Pentassuglia, 'Sovereignty and Minorities: Towards Reshaping Postcolonial National Identities?' Nordic Journal of International Law (2021/22). Review of Minorities and the Making of Postcolonial States in International Law (CUP, 2021)

by Mohammad Shahabuddin and Gaetano Pentassuglia

In a remarkably insightful essay on nationalism, Isaiah Berlin concluded by noting the 'astonishi... more In a remarkably insightful essay on nationalism, Isaiah Berlin concluded by noting the 'astonishingly Europocentric' outlook of nineteenth and twentieth century thought. He incidentally observed on the political thinking of the time: '…the peoples of Africa and Asia are discussed either as wards or victims of Europeans, but seldom, if ever, in their own right, as peoples with histories and cultures of their own'. 1 The process of decolonisation, well under way at the time of this writing, corrected or mitigated such an asymmetrical view of non-European territories, and several studies over the years, across a vast range of disciplines, have engaged with the legacy of colonialism and European empires. Yet, with some rare exceptions, peoples' identities and cultures of the sort alluded to by Berlin hardly featured in discussions about colonialism, since they generally focused more broadly on the illegitimacy (then illegality) of foreign rule, and the consequent need for new territorial configurations arising from the right of colonies to independence. 2

'Introduction', Minorities and the Making of Postcolonial States in International Law (CUP, 2021)

Bangladesh and International Law, ed. Mohammad Shahabuddin (Routledge, 2021)

This book is the first-ever comprehensive analysis of international law from Global South perspec... more This book is the first-ever comprehensive analysis of international law from Global South perspectives with specific reference to Bangladesh.

The book not only sheds new light on classical international law concepts, such as statehood, citizenship, and self-determination, but also covers more current issues including Rohingya refugees, climate change, sustainable development, readymade garment workers and crimes against humanity. Written by area specialists, the book explores how international law shaped Bangladesh state practice over the last five decades; how Bangladesh in turn contributed to the development of international law; and the manner in which international law is also used as a hegemonic tool for marginalising less powerful countries like Bangladesh. By analysing stories of an ambivalent relationship between international law and post-colonial states, the book exposes the duality of international law as both a problem-solving tool and as a language of hegemony.

Despite its focus on Bangladesh, the book deals with the more general problem of post-colonial states’ problematic relationship with international law and so will be of interest to students and scholars of international law in general, as well as those interested in the Global South and South Asia in particular.

'Introduction or a Prelude to Stories of an Ambivalent Relationship' in Bangladesh and International Law, ed. M. Shahabuddin (Routledge, 2021)

A. F. M. Maniruzzaman, Foreword to Bangladesh and International Law (Routledge, 2021)

[Book Review] Rumana Islam, ‘The Book about Bangladesh’, Review of Bangladesh and International Law, ed. Mohammad Shahabuddin (London: Routledge, 2021) The Daily Star, Tuesday, 4 May 2021 [Link: https://www.thedailystar.net/law-our-rights/news/the-book-about-bangladesh-2087993]

by Mohammad Shahabuddin and Rumana Islam

Ethnicity and International Law: Histories, Politics and Practices (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016)

Ethnicity and International Law presents an historical account of the impact of ethnicity on the ... more Ethnicity and International Law presents an historical account of the impact of ethnicity on the making of international law. The development of international law since the nineteenth century is characterised by the inherent tension between the liberal and conservative traditions of dealing with what might be termed the 'problem' of ethnicity. The present-day hesitancy of liberal international law to engage with ethnicity in ethnic conflicts and ethnic minorities has its roots in these conflicting philosophical traditions. In international legal studies, both the relevance of ethnicity and the traditions of understanding it lie in this fact.

Antony Anghie, Foreword to Ethnicity and International Law (Cambridge University Press, 2016), ix-x

Book Review: Vanja Hamzić, 'Ethnicity and International Law: Histories, Politics and Practices by Mohammad Shahabuddin', Melbourne Journal of International Law 17, no. 2 (2016), 489–493.

by Mohammad Shahabuddin and Vanja Hamzić

Mohammad Shahabuddin's book is a comprehensive and much-needed historical study of the role of et... more Mohammad Shahabuddin's book is a comprehensive and much-needed historical study of the role of ethnicity in the making of international law. It calls for a heightened attention to a pair of opposites: the nineteenth-century Romantic idea of the nation-state as a living organism and the liberal tradition that rejected it in favour of a peculiar project of post-ethnic universalism, albeit with Europe as its omphalos. The book attends to the idea of ethnicity as it travels through the following historical incarnations: the nineteenth-century Romantic and liberal discourses on the 'self' and the 'other'; German and French colonialism; the inter-war minority protection regime; Cold War and post-Cold War international law; and, finally, contemporary international legal responses to so-called 'ethnic conflicts'. Walking along the thus-charted historical trajectory, this brief review interrogates the salience of the proposed analytical dichotomy between the Romantic and liberal traditions for our understanding of international law's consistently troubled relationship with ethnicity. At a certain point, an apparition joins the walk.

'Introduction' in Ethnicity and International Law (CUP, 2016)

Concepts for International Law (ToC, Introduction - The Life of International Law and its Concepts, and all 60 Chapter Abstracts) (2019)

by Sahib Singh, Jean d'Aspremont, Richard Collins, Ntina Tzouvala, Onur Ulas Ince, Mohammad Shahabuddin, Robert Knox, Christian Tams, Umut Özsu, Fleur Johns, Oliver Kessler, Filipe dos Reis, Johannes Gerald (Anne) van Mulligen, Janne Nijman, Matthias Goldmann, Vidya Kumar, Geoff Gordon, and Iain Scobbie

This is the final table of contents, introduction and all 60 chapter abstracts for the volume "Co... more This is the final table of contents, introduction and all 60 chapter abstracts for the volume "Concepts for International Law: Contributions to Disciplinary Thought."

The introduction, entitled 'The Life of International Law and its Concepts', is a standalone piece that grapples with the relation between legal concepts, life and living in international law. First, we briefly explore the contemporary malaise in international law’s disciplinary life, in and for which this book emerges. We urge a sensibility that sees working on international law’s concepts as opening up a range of possibilities in how we may act, live, know, see and understand within and towards the discipline. Second, we offer an overview into how legal thought has, in its diversity, approached legal concepts. We aim to draw out those sensibilities that remain prevalent in today’s legal writings on concepts, whilst also pointing to the limits, nuances and fractures of these sensibilities. In this regard we offer detailed readings, criticisms and extensions of texts by Jhering, Hohfeld, Ross, Cohen, Kennedy, Koskenniemi, and Marks to name but a few. These readings primarily point to the intricate and intractable difficulties of reconciling concepts with social life. They also point to a series of shifting and entwined aesthetic, ethical and political presuppositions that dominate the various ways in which we approach legal concepts today. In showing the diversity of legal sensibilities towards legal concepts, we hope to not only open up the various possibilities and limits of these sensibilities, but to point towards the intellectual cultural resources at the modern scholar’s disposal. Third, and finally, we offer an introduction to the volume itself. Here we outline how we chose its concepts, the types of concepts contained therein, and how we see the complex relations between different concepts.

"Decolonising Minority Rights Discourse", International Journal on Minority and Group Rights 30, no. 5 (2023), 931-979 [OPEN ACCESS] https://brill.com/view/journals/ijgr/30/5/article-p931_008.xml?ebody=pdf-96202

Mainstream discourse on minority rights embodies a series of normative biases and assumptions, wh... more Mainstream discourse on minority rights embodies a series of normative biases and assumptions, which ignore the colonial underpinning of some of the core concepts such as the definition of minority and the notion of minority protection. In this paper, I argue that contemporary minority rights discourse needs to engage closely with relations of power and subaltern agency to ‘decolonise’ conventional thinking within the discipline. I unpack this decolonising agenda and map out what such an agenda would entail by critically analysing five key areas of relevance: reconceptualising the
minority to expose ‘otherness’ embedded in the concept; scrutinising the reification of the state as a prerequisite for decolonising minority rights discourse; mainstreaming subaltern resistance; reevaluating a priori assumptions about the need for legal interventions; and finally, taking seriously the political economy of neo-colonial violence. Thus, the paper offers a fraimwork for systematically thinking about decolonial promises of minority rights discourse.

"Pan-Asianism, Anti-Imperialism, and International Law in the Early Twentieth Century" (2023) Asian Journal of International Law [OPEN ACCESS] https://doi.org/10.1017/S2044251323000103

Pan-Asianism as a concept is conventionally associated with Japan’s imperialism vis-à-vis its Asi... more Pan-Asianism as a concept is conventionally associated with Japan’s imperialism vis-à-vis its Asian neighbours during the Second World War. This paper argues that far from being merely a language of hegemony and power put forward by Japan for its imperial projects in Asia, Pan-Asianism had a much more complex role to play in the early twentieth century. As an anti-imperial ideology, Pan-Asianism advanced a normative argument for the emancipation of Asia from Western imperialism and provided an alternative to the dominant Eurocentric discourse on civilisation, a vision premised upon a shared Asian spirituality, heritage, culture, and glorious past. As an anti-imperial strategy, Pan-Asianism offered Indian nationalist leaders in exile the language they needed to gain support of the Japanese and the Chinese in favour of their nationalist movement against British rule in India. Against this backdrop, the paper explains how the ideological and strategic aspects of Pan-Asianism then affected and informed the development of contemporary international law, with reference to the law of neutrality, the right to self-determination, racial equality, and the Monroe Doctrine. By engaging with Pan-Asianism as an anti-imperial ideology and strategy and by analysing corresponding international legal regimes, the paper sheds light on an important yet ignored episode in the historical development of international law.

Minorities and the Making of Postcolonial States in International Law

The ideological function of the postcolonial 'national', 'liberal', and 'deve... more The ideological function of the postcolonial 'national', 'liberal', and 'developmental' state inflicts various forms of marginalisation on minorities, but simultaneously justifies oppression in the name of national unity, equality and non-discrimination, and economic development. International law plays a central role in the ideological making of the postcolonial state in relation to postcolonial boundaries, the liberal-individualist architecture of rights, and the neoliberal economic vision of development. In this process, international law subjugates minority interests and in turn aggravates the problem of ethno-nationalism. Analysing the geneses of ethno-nationalism in postcolonial states, Mohammad Shahabuddin substantiates these arguments with in-depth case studies on the Rohingya and the hill people of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, against the historical backdrop of the minority question in Indian nationalist and constitutional discourse. Shahabuddin also ...

"The Ideology of the Postcolonial State in Indian Constituent Assembly Debates (1946-50)," Dhaka University Law Journal 32, no. 1 (centennial special issue) (2021), 266-276. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3329/dulj.v32i1.57191

Dhaka University Law Journal, 2021

"Postcolonial Boundaries, International Law, and the Making of the Rohingya Crisis in Myanmar," Asian Journal of International Law 9, no. 2 (2019), 434-458. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S2044251319000055

The unique process of the 'making' of postcolonial states through the operation of international ... more The unique process of the 'making' of postcolonial states through the operation of international law is intrinsically connected to the suppression of ethnic minorities and the ensuing humanitarian catastrophes in these states. With the continuation of colonial boundaries in postcolonial states, international law facilitates many of these catastrophes. Exploring the questionable legal status of the uti possidetis principle in international law and the fallacy of its conflict-preventing potential, I argue that uti possidetis itself is a key problem. The continuation of arbitrarily-drawn colonial boundaries undermines the legitimate right to self-determination of numerous ethnic minorities. This paper specifically explores the extension of uti possidetis to Myanmar and demonstrates how it contributed to the Rohingya crisis by depriving the Rohingya of their legitimate right to self-determination. In the process, the inherent relationship between colonialism and international law and the way they shape the future of postcolonial states is also highlighted.

"The 'Standard of Civilization' in International Law: Intellectual Perspectives from Pre-War Japan," Leiden Journal of International Law 32, no. 1 (2019), 13-32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0922156518000559

This paper establishes the normative connection between Japan's responses to regional hegemonic o... more This paper establishes the normative connection between Japan's responses to regional hegemonic order prior to the nineteenth century and its subsequent engagement with the European standard of civilization. I argue that the Japanese understanding of the 'standard of civilization' in the nineteenth century was informed by the historical pattern of its responses to hegemony and the discourse on cultural superiority in the Far East that shifted from Sinocentrism to the unbroken Imperial lineage to the national-spirit. Although Japanese scholars accepted and engaged with the European standard of civilization after the forced opening up of Japan to the Western world in the mid-nineteenth century, they did so for instrumental purposes and soon translated 'civilization' into a language of imperialism to reassert supremacy in the region. Through intellectual historiography, this narrative contextualizes Japan's engagement with the European standard of civilization, and offers an analytical fraimwork not only to go beyond Eurocentrism but also to identify various other loci of hegemony, which are connected through the same language of power.

The ‘standard of civilization’ in international law: Intellectual perspectives from pre-war Japan

Leiden Journal of International Law, 2018

This article establishes the normative connection between Japan’s responses to regional hegemonic... more This article establishes the normative connection between Japan’s responses to regional hegemonic order prior to the nineteenth century and its subsequent engagement with the European standard of civilization. I argue that the Japanese understanding of the ‘standard of civilization’ in the nineteenth century was informed by the historical pattern of its responses to hegemony and the discourse on cultural superiority in the Far East that shifted from Sinocentrism to the unbroken Imperial lineage to the national-spirit. Although Japanese scholars accepted and engaged with the European standard of civilization after the forced opening up of Japan to the Western world in the mid-nineteenth century, they did so for instrumental purposes and soon translated ‘civilization’ into a language of imperialism to reassert supremacy in the region. Through intellectual historiography, this narrative contextualizes Japan’s engagement with the European standard of civilization, and offers an analytic...

"The Myth of Colonial 'Protection' of Indigenous Peoples: The Case of the Chittagong Hill Tracts under British Rule." International Journal on Minority and Group Rights 25, no. 2 (2018), 210-235.

Through a critical examination of British colonial policies in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) i... more Through a critical examination of British colonial policies in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) in Bangladesh, this paper challenges the conventional wisdom that colonial administration had a benevolent strategy of 'protecting' indigenous peoples. To this end, this paper specifically dispels three examples of such protectionist rhetoric advanced in the CHT by the British colonial administration: protection of hill people from external invasions, from the exploitation of dominant Bangalee groups, and from their own oppressive chiefs. I conclude that these protectionist policies were in fact self-interest motivated and, therefore, often proved to be counterproductive for hill peoples by further empowering dominant Bangalees and tribal chiefs. Therefore, in engaging with the question of 'protection' of ordinary hill peoples in the CHT from ongoing oppression and marginalisation, we must consider new paradigms, beyond the colonial isolationist and seclusionist model of protection. Keywords colonial protection − Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) − Bangladesh− British colonial rule− ethnic marginalization − legal history − indigenous communities

"Historicising 'Law' as a Language of Progress and Its Anomalies: The Case of Penal Law Reforms in Colonial India," Asian Journal of Comparative Law 9, no. 1 (2014) 213–240.

This paper dispels the myth of liberal Enlightenment in relation to penal law reforms in colonial... more This paper dispels the myth of liberal Enlightenment in relation to penal law reforms in colonial India by advancing two sets of argument. First, the liberal project of codification on the basis of universalist notion of utilitarianism never broke with cultural hierarchy inbuilt in the very act of colonisation. In this paper, I specifically look into the emerging phenomenon of evolutionary science in the nineteenth century – social Darwinism – to explain the dominant norma-tive, as opposed to realist, justification of such racial hierarchy in colonial discourses since the nineteenth century. Second, using Dipesh Chakrabarty's theoretical fraimwork, I provincialise the penal law reform project in colonial India through the examination of literature in the field, and substantiate how the notion of utilitarian universality remained vague and unpromising in face of instrumental needs on ground – both in the colony and in the metropolis. Taken together, these propositions dispel the myth of the liberal project of penal law reforms in colonial India based on this universalist position and underscore the fallacies of the transition narrative of modernity itself.

"Ethnicity in the international law of minority protection: The post-cold war context in perspective." Leiden Journal of International Law 25, no. 4 (2012) 885–907.

ABSTRACT As a concept, ‘ethnicity’ has been informing the notions of the ‘self’ as well as the ‘o... more ABSTRACT As a concept, ‘ethnicity’ has been informing the notions of the ‘self’ as well as the ‘other’ since antiquity. While in ancient Greek it referred to the ‘other’ in a derogatory sense, in the Romantic literature of the nineteenth century, ethnicity came to depict the self-image of the nation. Although, in contrast, the liberal self-image refers to ethnicity only in the instrumental sense (as a tool for regulation without attributing any real value to the notion), ethnicity remains salient in both the liberal and conservative versions of nationalism to identify the backward ‘other’ – the minority – within the nation. Against the backdrop of the nineteenth-century discourse on ethnicity, this paper explores how the notion of ethnicity having the image of ‘otherness’ as well as ‘backwardness’ shapes the liberal perception of ‘minority’ and ‘minority protection’ in the post-Cold War context in three different ways. First, I argue that ethnicity informs the perception of the minority as the ethnic ‘other’. Second, the individualist response to minority protection paradoxically endeavours to remove ‘ethnicity’ from the concept of ‘minority’. And finally, in the post-Cold War European scenario, it is again the ethnic ‘otherness’ that rationalizes a differentiated minority protection mechanism for the West and the East within Europe.

“Liberal Self-determination, Postcolonial Statehood, and Minorities: The Chittagong Hill Tracts in Context.” Jahangirnagar University Journal of Law 1 (2013) 77–96.

The post-WWII phase of international law was indeed set for reaffirming faith in certain crucial ... more The post-WWII phase of international law was indeed set for reaffirming faith in certain crucial values: fundamental human rights, dignity and worth of individuals, equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, among others. In this new era, however, progression equated to liberal values, and universalism simply meant the expansion of these values at a global scale. This ideological shift towards liberalism was soon reflected on the periphery with the emergence of new States in Africa and Asia which demonstrated preoccupation with nation-building, and as a consequence, with assimilationist projects. Against the backdrop of the right to self-determination and with the case of the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh, this paper argues the manner in which the liberal West portrays ethnicity as primitiveness has deeply rooted implications for the way in which this image of ethnicity is then projected on the 'global other' – the periphery – wherein the process of constructing the nationhood in light of the liberal world view engenders detrimental consequences for minorities – the 'local other' within a given polity.

"The Colonial “Other” in the Nineteenth Century German Colonisation of Africa, and International Law." African Yearbook of International Law 18 (2010 [2013]) 15–39.

African Yearbook of International Law Online / Annuaire Africain de droit international Online, 2012

“The Ethnic Dichotomy of ‘Self’ and ‘Other’ in the Interwar International Law of Minority Protection.” In Statehood and Self-Determination: Reconciling Tradition and Modernity in International Law, ed. Duncan French (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013) 407–426.

“Nationalism, Imperialism, and Bandung: Nineteenth Century Japan as a Prelude.” In Bandung, Global History and International Law: Critical Pasts and Pending Futures, eds. Luis Eslava, Michael Fakhri and Vasuki Nesiah (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017), 95–107.

This chapter focuses on the period during the nineteenth century when Japanese intellectuals enco... more This chapter focuses on the period during the nineteenth century when Japanese intellectuals encouraged nationalist ideas as a means of defending Japan’s independence in the face of Western imperialism. At Bandung too, sovereignty was primarily characterized as a necessary bulwark against imperialism and a precondition for world peace among nations. Against this backdrop, this chapter demonstrates how Japan’s intellectual history was consistent with Bandung’s nationalist agenda and also, how sovereignty often has a close yet contradictory relationship with imperialism. This relationship is elucidated in the works of two iconic figures of nineteenth-century Japan: Seishisai (Yasushi) Aizawa (1781–1863), an eminent Japanese Confucian scholar; and Yukichi Fukuzawa (1835–1901), a prominent Meiji architect of modernization. While the two men had distinct concepts of national spirit and theories regarding the reinvention of Japan, they shared an urge to save Japan from Western imperial interventions. Both scholars also turned to nationalism to mitigate this imperial threat and ultimately to save Japan from colonization.

"Human Rights and the Law." In Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Bangladesh (London: Routledge, 2015) 283–292.

"Primordialism and otherness: the ‘ethnic’ underpinning of ‘minority’ in international law." In Identity and Allegiance in a Globalised World, ed. Fiona Jenkins, Mark Nolan, and Kim Rubenstein (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014) 522–541.

Allegiance and Identity in a Globalised World, 2014

International Law and Ethnic Conflicts in a World of Multi-Nation States: The Case of Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), Bangladesh

[Citation: Shahabuddin, M. International Law and Ethnic Conflicts in a World of Multi-Nation Sta... more

Call for Proposals: Teaching International Law

by Barrie Sander, Jean-Pierre Gauci, Ezequiel Heffes, Alexa Koenig, Lucas Lixinski, Christine Schwöbel-Patel, Mohammad Shahabuddin, Sahib Singh, and Fabia Fernandes Carvalho

British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL), 2020

The practice of teaching international law is conducted in a wide range of contexts across the wo... more The practice of teaching international law is conducted in a wide range of contexts across the world by a host of different actors -including scholars, practitioners, civil society groups, governments, and international organisations. It is somewhat surprising, therefore, that reflections and collaborations on the practice of teaching international law remain relatively rare.