Ostransky, Josef --- "A case for ethnography of international investment law" [2019] ELECD 2962; in Deplano, Rossana (ed), "Pluralising International Legal Scholarship" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) 64

Book Title: Pluralising International Legal Scholarship

Editor(s): Deplano, Rossana

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Section: Chapter 3

Section Title: A case for ethnography of international investment law

Author(s): Ostřanský, Josef

Number of pages: 20

Abstract/Description:

In this chapter, I intend to make two claims: one specific and one general. The specific argument is that research methods inspired by ethnography and legal anthropology bring significant insights into our understanding of the effects of contested legal regimes such as international investment law (IIL). Especially, they help us understand how IIL influences the lived experiences of affected actors. The general claim is that this type of scholarship contributes to the debates taking place within traditional doctrinal scholarship, in that it challenges international lawyers to be more circumspect about some of their universalist and often sweeping normative assumptions. The argument proceeds by discussing the methodological and theoretical aspects of a collaborative multidisciplinary research project, of which I have been part of over the last five years, that studied impacts of IIL on governance in four selected countries. It warrants an emphasis that the chapter does not aim at introducing the substantive findings of that research project, as the chapter’s goal is essentially methodological. I start this chapter by presenting the research design of a project which served as an inspiration for this chapter. I will show what kind of questions ethnographic or ethnography-inspired research may answer and what kind of methods can be used. After that, the chapter will turn to the challenges ethnographic research in IIL faces and then to discussion on what kind of concepts may be used in such research. The last part of the chapter will discuss differences and points of contact between ethnography as a method of legal research and the traditional doctrinal approaches to law.