Agreements ‘Beyond the Grave’: Time-Travelling Imperialism and the Temporal Limits of Treaties with Sean Fleming (19 March)

Wednesday 19 March, 3pm – 4.30pm, Chrystal Macmillan Building, Conference Room 3.15

Under international law, treaties can remain in force indefinitely. But in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, many liberal political theorists questioned whether treaties could or should extend “beyond the grave,” or bind subsequent generations. This article resurrects and reconsiders two arguments for placing time-limits on treaties. The first, made by Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine, I call the Authority Argument: treaties should be time-limited because political authority itself has a limited lifespan. The second, made by John Stuart Mill, I call the Foresight Argument: treaties should be time-limited because circumstances inevitably change in unforeseeable ways. I show that these arguments are more relevant than ever in the age of decolonization. From the American lease of Guantánamo Bay to the Charter of the United Nations, international agreements often calcify, perpetuate, and legitimize asymmetrical and imperial relationships between states. Time-limiting treaties would guard against time-travelling imperialism.