The need to challenge the political-economic “root causes” of human rights violations led the WCC to campaign for international economic restructuring. This chapter first shows how the WCC articulated its new human rights agenda, at the 1974 St. Pölten consultation on “Human Rights and Christian Responsibility” and its 1975 Nairobi Assembly. These conferences coincided with the international campaign for a New International Economic Order (NIEO) at the United Nations, led by the Non-Aligned Movement. Seeing in the NIEO a generational opportunity to change international inequality, the WCC supported its thrust, while seeking to act as a corrective to the NIEO’s lack of concern for individual rights. The NIEO’s state-centric nature contributed to its demise by the end of the decade, however, and while the WCC continued to pursue international redistribution over the course of the 1980s, the Third World sovereign debt crisis, the end of the Cold War, and the 1993 Vienna World Conference on Human Rights further set back its hopes for a more egalitarian world order.

Chapter 6 explores revolutionary world-making projects in the Global South during the Cold War, focusing on anti-imperialist movements. It begins with Fidel Castro’s 1966 call to arms against imperialism, highlighting struggles against colonialism and racism. The chapter examines the Soviet Union’s challenge to capitalism and its interaction with anti-colonial projects in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, arguing these movements were distinct and sought to repurpose legal sovereignty for Third World assertion. It contrasts socialist and liberal internationalisms, particularly in approaches to self-determination and revolutionary violence, noting the Soviet support for anti-colonial forces. The chapter discusses the influence of Marxist-Leninist thought on revolutionary movements, highlighting projects like Pan-Africanism and Cuban interventionism. It examines national self-determination’s role in reshaping global politics and the challenges new states faced in achieving true independence. The chapter concludes by calling for a re-examination of revolutionary internationalism’s impact on international law, recognising the diverse movements that sought to disrupt the Cold War order.

Contemporary political theorists tend to understand popular assembly in terms of embodiment in the present, part of an effort to temper linguistic determinism in prevailing theories of collective action. These accounts go too far. Instead, symbolic acts of memorialization may facilitate collective identity in the present. This technique emphasizes narrative recitation and judgment in a manner that may foster both disruption and preservation. Thus, the unfolding of mass demonstrations in late 1970s Iran accorded with descriptions of a collective subject in the image of Zaynab bint Ali. This feature of Iranian history recalls and departs from theories of popular assembly as self-witnessing, also described in scholarly debates as collective self-regard.

The chapter examines the role of the UN Charter in shaping the Cold War’s ideological and legal landscape. The chapter begins with Winston Churchill’s 1946 ‘Sinews of Peace’ speech, which highlighted the duality of the post-war world: the creation of the United Nations and the emerging division between East and West. The UN Charter, while promoting sovereign statehood and universality, also formalised the Amero-Soviet rivalry, embedding ambiguities that allowed ideological contestation within a lawful framework. The Charter’s emphasis on sovereign statehood and the nation-state form provided a template for decolonisation, yet left space for rival interpretations and political agendas, particularly from Latin American, African and Asian states. The chapter explores how the Charter’s ambiguities facilitated US–Soviet competition, focusing on representation, intervention and self-determination. It highlights the Charter’s role in enabling covert US–Soviet rivalry and its impact on global order, decolonisation and the stabilisation of property ownership. The chapter concludes by setting the stage for the next chapter, which will explore the Amero-Soviet project of world-making through the UN Charter and its broader geopolitical implications.

What was Pahlavi Iran’s role in the 1974 declaration of the New International Economic Order? How does this history, largely ignored and dismissed, alter political theories of decolonization? The Pahlavi state’s diplomatic efforts from 1968 until the 1979 revolution were a reflection of Iran’s semi-colonial history. Iran occupied an intermediary posture alongside peers who espoused anticolonial visions of nondomination more recognizable as revolutionary. The state’s posture is illegible in regnant theories of decolonization. To see it, scholars must adopt methods attuned to imprecision. Pahlavi state diplomacy thus set the stage for a popular transnational revolutionary movement, which would assume an intermediary posture of its own.

Chapter 5 explores the Global South’s role in shaping international law during the Cold War, challenging the dominant North Atlantic narrative. It highlights the Third World’s active engagement in creating and contesting international law through three case studies: Algeria’s war for independence, the Anglo–Iranian Oil case, and the establishment of a UN Commission on Transnational Corporations. Algeria used the Geneva Conventions to internationalise its struggle against France, redefining anti-colonial warfare as a legitimate fight for self-determination. The Anglo-Iranian Oil case at the ICJ underscored the contestation over international judicial authority, with Iran asserting its sovereignty against the UK. The UN Commission on Transnational Corporations illustrated the Third World’s alliance with the Soviet Union to challenge corporate power. These examples reveal the Cold War as a period of legal experimentation and contestation, with the Third World playing a crucial role in shaping international law and challenging retrospective assumptions about the era.

Chapter 4 specifies the relevance of international human rights law in the context of the TRIPS at the junction of WTO law and IP law. This chapter explores the possibilities and limits of a coexistence perspective between IP and human rights. Accordingly, human rights are considered an integral part of the interpretative resources required to comprehend the TRIPS-stipulated obligations. This chapter focuses on human rights entailed by the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), such as the rights to health, food, and education, complementing the rich scholarship on the access modality of these rights (e.g., access to drugs, seeds, and educational material) by focusing on both the right to science and the right to self-determination as interpreted in a republican way. By interfacing with IP law, the right to science highlights the relevance of accessing scientific progress and its benefits while focusing mainly on the importance of a participative and inclusive approach to identifying and defining a population’s needs and priorities.

In this chapter, I demonstrate that Hegel removes three Kantian obstacles that stand in the way of an elaboration of autonomy as a form of life. Hegel rearticulates the form of autonomy in such a way that we can recognize living beings as a basic case of autonomy. Secondly, Hegel shows that internal purposiveness is not a derivative concept, making positive knowledge of natural purposiveness intelligible. Thirdly, Hegel provides a positive account of the lived reality of freedom. Taken together, these shifts open up the possibility of understanding practical autonomy not just as analogous to living self-organization but as an actual form of living self-organization. The second half of the chapter shows how this account is underwritten by Hegel’s new understanding of the distinction between the realm of nature and of freedom. By reference to Hegel’s Philosophy of Nature, the chapter shows how he modifies Kant’s distinction in crucial ways. Firstly, he gives a new substantive account of the realm of nature, revealing how it includes a form of natural freedom. Secondly, Hegel clarifies that the realms of freedom and nature are not externally juxtaposed and argues that the differentiation of these two realms is internal to spirit. Thirdly, Hegel considers the ways in which spirit reproduces the forms of a realm of nature within itself in the shape of a second nature.

This chapter examines Indigenous nation-building as a critical strategy for bridging gaps between policy intent and meaningful connection to Country, focusing on the Western Australian Aboriginal Empowerment Strategy. It highlights persistent disparities stemming from settler-colonial governance, where institutions often fail to address Indigenous cultural, social, economic, and ecological priorities. The analysis shows how empowerment efforts encounter resistance when they challenge entrenched power dynamics, reflecting systemic reluctance toward transformative change. In contrast, Indigenous nation-building provides a self-determined framework for governance, development, and community empowerment rooted in Aboriginal worldviews. The chapter assesses Western Australia’s Closing the Gap Implementation Plan 2023–2025 through this lens, underscoring the importance of cultural integrity, truth-telling, genuine partnerships, and shared decision-making. It concludes with recommendations for institutional reform, arguing that only deep systemic change can deliver equity and improved outcomes for Aboriginal communities.

This chapter characterizes the five central themes that emerged from and unite the contributions to this book. It clarifies how the contributors characterized a defining conundrum of Black poetry, traces its intellectual interventions and its communal sensibilites, identifies its innovative origins and emphasis on syncretism, and captures its artistic beauties. And it clarifies how the contributors characterize the growing influence of African American poets in determining the terms of literary value in US literary culture. It verifies the expertise by which these essays validate African American poetry as a distincitve tradition and as an aspect of a US national tradition which it both critiques and enhances.

This chapter explores Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled health services (ACCHOS) and looks at the important role they play in improving health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It is difficult to understand the Aboriginal community-controlled health sector of today without considering how the sector developed. This chapter therefore outlines the conception and establishment of the services and the political realities facing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people at the time of their commencement. This chapter is organised around a case study of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Service in Brisbane, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2023. To complement the case study, the chapter includes an overview of the governance structures of the community-controlled sector, as this is an area that can be difficult for health professionals to understand. The scenarios, case studies and reflective questions focus on experiences that nurses and midwives might have working in an Aboriginal community-controlled health service.

This chapter focuses on the law relating to sovereign territory. The concepts of territory and of territorial sovereignty are examined. The manner in which additional territory may be acquired is analysed. Mechanisms such as boundary treaties and boundary awards are noted, and then the methods of acquisition are discussed. These include an analysis of discovery, accretion, cession, the former use of force and conquest, and the exercise of effective control, including occupation of terra nullius and prescription. The impact of the concepts of the critical date and intertemporal law is noted. Attention then turns to the role of subsequent conduct, such as recognition, acquiescence and estoppel. The principles of territorial integrity and of self-determination in this context are then discussed, together with the doctrine of uti possidetis, both as to the colonial context and more generally. The role of subsequent practice is noted and the importance of sovereign effective control in the circumstances (‘effectivités’). The chapter continues by noting the relevance of leases and servitudes, then turns to international boundary rivers, and then the polar regions. The chapter concludes with a section on the law of outer space.

This chapter deals with the subjects of international law. The meaning of international legal personality is noted. The primary subject of the international system is the state and the conditions for the creation of statehood are examined (permanent population, defined territory, government and capacity to enter into relations with other states). Each of these conditions is examined. The role of self-determination in the context of the criteria of statehood is discussed, as is the function of recognition. The fundamental rights of states, such as independence and equality are noted. There then follow sections on particular kinds of states, such as protectorates and federal states, and then sui generis territorial entities, for example, mandated and trust territories in the past, territories under international administration, and entities of disputed status such as Taiwan, the Saharan Arab Democratic Republic, Kosovo and Palestine. Special cases such as the Sovereign Order of Malta, the Holy See and the Vatican City, and international corporations are covered before the right of peoples to self-determination is examined.

This chapter examines international humanitarian law or the laws of war or the laws of armed conflict. Its development is briefly traced and its substance based upon the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 examined. These cover the principles concerning the wounded and sick on land and on sea, the treatment of prisoners of war, and the protection of civilians in times of war. The scope and meaning of occupation is examined, ranging from the start of such occupation, the rights and duties of the occupying power and its cessation. In this context, the principles of self-determination and non-annexation of territory are noted. The relationship between international humanitarian law and international human rights law is then examined, followed by an analysis of the rules governing the conduct of hostilities. The status of non-international armed conflicts is considered, and then follows a survey of the pertinent principles governing cyber warfare. The chapter concludes with a look at the enforcement of international humanitarian law.

This chapter offers an historical examination of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander healthcare from a nursing viewpoint. It considers how the current shape of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health has been formed by actions taken since European colonisation. It discusses the status of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health during different historical periods, including what is known about the pre-invasion health system and health service provision during the periods of initial contact, separation and protection. Finally, the chapter discusses the rise of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled health system and contemporary choices for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the delivery of healthcare and health outcomes. It further discusses the approach taken by all Australian governments of working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, communities and organisations to implement the new National Agreement on Closing the Gap at the national, state and territory, and local levels. Each section of this chapter is framed within the prism of nursing, exploring the role of nursing in health systems and the delivery of healthcare.