Abandoning Humanity? On Cultural Heritage and the Subject of International Law

Abstract

A recent International Criminal Court decision on the destruction of cultural heritage in Timbuktu has sparked a debate that goes far beyond the concrete case. It touches upon the longstanding and crucial question of who is the subject of international law. This question has also become exigent in the only seemingly distinct debate around the crisis of the Anthropocene. In both these debates humanity is portrayed as an actor who has either created or destroyed a foundation of creation’s existence, one that now is recognized as having a value of its own. The article first probes analytically how the court’s verdict and the debate surrounding it may be understood as echoing a fundamental concern of our time. Bringing affect theory into play, it delineates in a second step a concept of vulnerability that makes it possible to decenter the idea of “humanity” in international law as well as in political thought. Rather than thinking in terms of ownership, we might prefer to address the topic by using the notions of belonging and longing for.