Matthew Craven

 

Re-reading the Berlin Conference: International Law and the Logic of Extraction

The General Act of the Berlin Conference of 1884-5 is generally recalled as an instrument enabling the partition of Africa and the establishment of colonial rule. In this lecture, Professor Craven revisits that history, asking whether it might not better be understood as a regime of extraction whose logic may be tracked in various locations in contemporary international law. Matthew Craven is Dean of the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences and Professor of International Law at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He is a member of Matrix Chambers and Director of the Centre of the Study of Colonialism, Empire and International Law. In 2012 he taught Statehood in International Law in the Melbourne Law Masters.

2012 Sir Kenneth Bailey Memorial Lecture
4 April 2012
56.25 mins