International Law in a Transcivilizational World? Tensions Between International Law and Civilization

In December 2018, the Malaysian government declined to sign the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racism fearing a reaction from the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) which believed that the convention would “threaten the nation” by undermining its founding social compact (Sukumaran 2018). Earlier that year, the Danish Parliament passed a bill aiming to break down “ghettos” by compelling children over one year old into government-run child-care with a deliberate effort to impart Danish values and language onto the children of immigrants. The anxiety of proponents of Western civilization who see immigration from countries with a different “civilization” contributed to the victories of the Leave side of the referendum on the European Union in the United Kingdom in 2016 and presidential candidates Donald Trump in the United States and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, in 2016 and 2018, respectively (DeMuth 2019)….