Draft: forthcoming in 67 UCLA Law Review 1386 (2021) 1 “UNWHITENING THE WORLD:” RETHINKING RACE AND INTERNATIONAL LAW Christopher Gevers * TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................ 1 I. Re-Thinking “Race” and International Law ............................................................................. 4 II. The Rise of the “White International” .................................................................................... 12 III. Mapping the White International Through Black Internationalist Fiction ............................. 23 CONCLUSION.................................................................................................................................. 34 This is exactly how the music called jazz began, and out of the same necessity: not only to redeem a history unwritten and despised, but to checkmate the European notion of the world. For until this hour, when we speak of history, we are speaking only of how Europe saw - and sees - the world. But there is a very great deal in the world which Europe does not, or cannot, see…’ (James Baldwin, ‘Of the Sorrow Songs: The Cross of Redemption’,1979) INTRODUCTION International law was invented in 1789 when Jeremy Bentham introduced the term to replace the outmoded “Law of Nations.” Since then, international lawyers have spent a lot of time thinking about whether international law is in fact law, and little or no time considering how Lecturer, School of Law, University of KwaZulu-Natal. My sincere thanks to the participants at the ‘Race, Empire and International Law’ workshop at UCLA in March 2019 (and, in particular, Antony Anghie, Devon Carbado, Cheryl Harris and James Gathii), as well as Tendayi Achiume, Joel Modiri and John Reynolds for their comments on earlier drafts of this article; and to the Editors of the UCLA Law Review for their patience and critical insights. All errors remain my own. This article is dedicated to the memory of Nokuthula Simelane, and to her family who await justice.