Conversation on TWAIL with Dr. Idriss Fofana
Thursday, November 13, 2025 @ 12:50 pm - 2:00 pm
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Berkeley Law students, faculty, and visiting scholars are invited to join an intimate roundtable discussion on Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) and its future directions with Dr. Idriss Fofana from Harvard Law School. Dr. Fofana will open the conversation with a brief reflection on new directions in TWAIL, drawing from the assigned readings* and his own scholarship on international law, legal history, and law and colonialism. He will also address tensions between TWAIL and Marxist approaches to international law, before opening the floor to a roundtable discussion amongst attendees on the assigned readings, including JD, PhD, and LLM students. Commentary by Anthony Ghaly, PhD student, Jurisprudence and Social Policy and moderated by Anchita Dasgupta, JD student, Berkeley Law.
Professor Fofana is Assistant Professor of Law and Affiliate Assistant Professor of History at Harvard University. Originally from Côte d’Ivoire, he received his undergraduate degree from Harvard College, his J.D. from Yale Law School, and his Ph.D. in African and Chinese history from Columbia University. His research examines the history of international law and other forms of inter-polity order in Africa and Asia since the 1600s, focusing particularly on China and Sahelian West Africa. He works primarily with sources in Chinese (classical and modern), French, Arabic (classical), and Portuguese. Before joining the Harvard faculty, Professor Fofana served as the Reginald F. Lewis Fellow at Harvard Law School and as a Judicial Fellow for Judge Abdulqawi Yusuf, then president of the International Court of Justice. His scholarship has appeared in the Leiden Journal of International Law, the Journal of the History of International Law, and other leading publications.
This event is sponsored by the Miller Institute for Global Challenges and the Law, the International Law Society and the Berkeley Journal of International Law.
Lunch provided for those attending. RSVP via this link, scan QR code, or email to <MGCL@law.berkeley.edu>.
*Assigned Readings:
Required:
- Arnulf Becker Lorca, “After TWAIL’s Success, What Next? Afterword to the Foreword by Antony Anghie,” European Journal of International Law, Vol. 34, No. 1 (2023). Link.
Recommended:
- Antony Anghie, “Rethinking International Law: A TWAIL Retrospective” (Introduction), European Journal of International Law, Vol. 34, No. 4 (2023). Link.
Note: Following this discussion, Dr. Fofana will present his paper “How Treaties Travel Across Time and Space: A Conflict Based Approach” at the Berkeley Legal History Workshop at 3:35pm in Law Room 111. To attend and discuss his work, please contact Professor Jose Argueta Funes at jeaf@berkeley.edu.
These events are open only to UC Berkeley Law students, faculty, and staff, unless otherwise noted.
Events are wheelchair accessible. For disability-related accommodations, contact the organizer of the event. Advance notice is kindly requested.
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