Decolonizing the Classroom: Towards Dismantling the Legacies of Colonialism & Incorporating TWAIL into the Teaching of International Law in Kenya

Abstract

The colonial encounter largely shaped the African continent and Kenya was no exception. In Kenya, formal western education was introduced by the missionaries as part of the civilising mission and continued to evolve in the post-colonial state with the establishment of universities offering legal programs. Core in the curricula of these law undergraduate and postgraduate programs are international law courses such as public international law, international criminal law, international commercial law, international trade law, inter alia. The objective of offering international law courses is to enable students to appreciate traditional aspects of international law as well as modern aspects such as globalization and their relevance in today’s world. However, international law is mainly taught from a European perspective with the bulk of the textbooks utilized in these law programs written by European scholars. The literature used and the pedagogy adopted in the teaching of international law remains rife with exclusions and distortions of indigenous knowledge, voices, critiques and scholars. This article analyzes the potential of decolonizing the approach to the teaching of international law that is prevalent in law schools in Kenya. This article will analyze the mainstream narrative that is taught in the international law curricula and why it is problematic. Through the lens of Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL), this article argues for the teaching of international law in a manner which allows students to critically engage with its doctrines. This article will analyze the TWAIL theory of law and the potential for its incorporation into the teaching of international law with the aim of understanding the exclusions of the African perspective. The author will analyze why the use of TWAIL can aid in deconstructing western narratives and incorporate indigenous viewpoints into the classroom with the aim of decolonization. The author concludes by reflecting on third world visions of international law which can be integrated into the law curricula in Kenya and its wider implications for the study of international law going forward.