Love Is Just a Four Letter Word

Abstract This essay takes issue with Jean d’Aspremont’s analysis of international lawyers’ attitude towards international organizations in terms of love. Apart from questioning the object of his analysis (his international lawyer might be a rather small category), the paper suggests that an analysis in terms of the emotions obscures far more than it can possibly reveal. Instead, it suggests that the prevailing attitude towards international organizations (reflected in the existing legal framework) is the result of socialisation into a number of strong tropes, such as the trope that cooperation is a good thing, that agreement is better than disagreement, and that the end justifies the means. Recognition of such tropes and their role facilitates the development of a much-needed critical approach to the international organizations.