Author Archives: Sara Kendall

About Sara Kendall

Sara Kendall is Senior Lecturer in International Law at the University of Kent, where she co-directs the Centre for Critical International Law. Her current research considers what she terms “humanitarian complicity” in international legal forms. Past publications have critically engaged with the fields of international criminal law and international humanitarian law, including a co-edited volume, Contested Justice: the Politics and Practice of International Criminal Court Interventions (Cambridge 2015). She also co-convenes a UK-based research network on legal materiality.

Inscribing the State: Constitution Drafting Manuals as Textual Technologies

Abstract: The rise of expert knowledge in constitutional matters marks a turn toward “constitutional technicity,” where constitution drafting is regarded as a domain of technical expertise inhabited by neutral and politically divested actors. This article considers the constitution drafting manual or handbook as a genre in which technical expertise confronts the political. These documents consolidate a view of what constitutes “best practice” in the production of contemporary state identity, yet they also act into the field of state-building, naturalizing particular understandings of the state that Continue reading → Continue reading →