The Law of the List: UNSC Counterterrorism and Global Sociolegal Research
This talk explores UN Security Council counterterrorism activity from what Eve Darian Smith calls a
‘global sociolegal perspective’,1 examining the mundane work of technical experts charged with
implementing the Al Qaeda sanctions list. Understanding how this domain has grown and adapted in
the face of widespread opposition requires analysis of the functional experts operating in the
‘background’2 and the practical mechanisms through which ‘law defers to the politics of expertise’3 –
that is, the risk governance technologies and knowledge practices that are being forged to preemptively counter the problem of global counterterrorism.
As such, this talk aims to both contribute to debates on UNSC counterterrorism and security expertise
and ask broader methodological questions relating to the study of global law: How are laws being
transformed under conditions of globalisation and what methods can we use to best understand its
effects? In what ways does thinking about law empirically and materially (rather than as an abstract
system of norms) change the ways we study it? How do the epistemic practices through which
transboundary problems come to known condition the ways global law is produced and sustained?
How can methodological insights from contemporary social science scholarship (in anthropology,
sociology, politics etc) be incorporated into cross-cutting global legal research design projects?
Biography:
Gavin Sullivan (g.sullivan@kent.ac.uk) joined Kent Law School as a lecturer in January 2016. His
research focuses on the politics of global security law and governance. Gavin is especially interested
in understanding how law changes when seeking to counter unknown future threats and how
different materials and knowledge practices help to create and shape what law is. Before joining KLS,
Gavin worked as doctoral researcher at the University of Amsterdam (NL) and directed the
Counterterrorism Program at the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights in Berlin (DE).
He is a practising solicitor and was previously a litigator with Leigh Day & Co (London) and Public
Interest Lawyers (Birmingham). He currently coordinates the Transnational Listing Project - a global
law clinic providing pro bono representation to people targeted by security lists worldwide. Recent
publications include: ‘The Politics of Security Lists’ (2016) 34(1) Environment and Planning D: Society
and Space 67 - 88 (with Marieke de Goede); and ‘Transnational Legal Assemblages and Global Security
Law: Topologies and Temporalities of the List’ (2014) 5(1) Transnational Legal Theory 81-127.
1
Darian Smith, E. (2013) Laws and Societies in Global Contexts: Contemporary Approaches
Kennedy, David. ‘Challenging expert rule: the politics of global governance’ (2005) 27 Sydney Law Review 5.
3 Koskenniemi, M. ‘The fate of public international law: between technique and politics’ 70(1) (2007) The Modern
Law Review 1.
2