w/ Dr. Nikolas M. Rajkovic

This lecture critically looks at the significance of cartography and maps as the basis for knowledge, domination and disobedience on the state of the world, and we will do so within a current context where international order is said to have become “topsy-turvy”. We explore the interplay between cartography, geography and modern international law to underline how scientific maps are social and historical constructions which par excellence distort global realities. In this vein, we probe whether International Law has become blinded by the “territorial trap” of physical geography, and specifically the planimetric map of the globe. A series of critical cartograms and interactive maps are discussed which pressure the naturalness of the iconic world map, and bring us to confront profound human consequences of legality that are ordinarily obscured by the prison-house of conventional political and legal geography.

Dr. Nikolas M. Rajkovic is a lecturer in International Law at the University of Kent Law School (UK), and has published in such journals as the Leiden Journal of International Law, European Journal of International Relations, and International Relations. In 2012, his revised Ph.D. dissertation was published as a monograph by Routledge: The Politics of International Law and Compliance. Nikolas’ current research explores both conceptually and empirically the impact that practices of international law have on the constitution and contestation of “legality.”