Melbourne Law School - Theses
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ItemThe art of development : law and ordering in the first world( 2002)The UN General Assembly has defined `development' as `a multi-dimensional undertaking to achieve a higher quality of life for all people'. This genealogical thesis suggests that the development narrative is a symptom of the yearning inherent in the human condition for the mystery of wholeness, which is `blessed beyond all others'. In this respect, the genealogy differs from much of the critical scholarship in the area of law and development, and in development studies more generally, in so far as it does not begin with the assumption that the `underdeveloped' and/or the `developed' worlds are an outcome of the Imperial Era. Instead, the author draws from various approaches and histories dating back to early and medieval Christianity. It is arguable that the underlying Christian narratives of salvation that go to support what we now refer to as `the West' play an important role in the construction of modern desires, contemporary forms of subjectivity, and a western yearning for totality from a site of fragmented dislocation. The genealogy therefore begins with an examination of the role of Christian disciplinary practices in the formation of a unified Christian world by reading the works of early-Christian theologians such as Augustine of Hippo, Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury and Peter Abelard. Having identified this `pre-colonial' Christian world, the dislocation of that identity by the discovery of the New World (and the crisis this caused to the existing image of the West as an accountable Christian body) will be explored further in the texts of Christian explorers such as Christopher Columbus and scholars such as Jean Bodin and Hugo Grotius. The texts of Michel de Montaigne will also be analysed to examine more closely the dislocation to be found at a more individual level during the early modern period. The texts of Francis Bacon are then used to trace further the Christian influences on Western identity and the construction of the sovereign state from Old World fantasies about its savage origins and ultimate salvation. The work of John Locke is used to support these findings, in addition to examining in more detail the transformation of Christian disciplinary practices into bio-political techniques used by the state to regulate the conduct of individuals in accordance with the conception and desires of nation. The author then approaches the subject of nation from an international perspective, questioning the motives behind the proclaimed peace of the Westphalian state system during a period of `High Imperialism' in a reading of the texts of President Roosevelt and positivist international lawyers. The final chapter draws together the emerging themes of the genealogy to show how the Christian foundations of Western identity are still present in the post-world-war `development era'. The inauguration speech of President Truman and documents produced by international development agencies and practitioners are read with this aim in mind.