The making of time in international legal discourse

The present dissertation investigates the concept of time in international law. It has two aims: first, to better understand how the notion of time has been conceptualised and utilised in international legal processes; second, to reflect on what this means to the making and operation of international law. With the method of discourse analysis, the dissertation studies the concept of time through examining the discourse surrounding time identified in international legal materials. Having analysed the temporal dimension of a variety of sites of international law, the dissertation argues that actors in international law have engaged with the conceptualisation of time in various manners to accomplish different purposes, and this has consequences on the power structures of the international legal order. As such, time is a malleable and powerful concept that has been invoked, construed, and used purposively in international legal discourse to shape the international legal system.