Valuing race? Stretched Marxism and the logic of imperialism
Robert Knox*
This article attempts to demonstrate the intimate interconnection between
value and race in international law. It begins with an exploration of Marxist
understandings of imperialism, arguing that they falsely counterpose race and
value. It then attempts to reconstruct an account in which the two are understood as mutually constitutive.
https://law.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/2356018/Knox,-Valuing-Race-Stretched-Marxism-and-the-logic-of-imperialism.pdf

THE HAITIAN INTERVENTION—VALUE, LAW AND RACE?
In his 2008 article ‘Multilateralism as Terror: International Law, Haiti and
Imperialism’,1 China Mie´ville dissects the 2004 UN intervention in Haiti. In
February 2004, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, leader of the leftwing Fanmi
Lavalas movement, was overthrown. Boniface Alexandre, Supreme Court Chief
Justice, was appointed interim-President, and requested international support.
In response, the Security Council passed Resolution 1529, which expressed deep
concern for ‘the deterioration of the political, security and humanitarian situation’. Acting under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, the Security Council
authorised a multinational ‘peacekeeping force’ which could ‘take all necessary
measures’ to ‘support the constitutional process under way in Haiti’ and
‘maintain public safety and law and order and to protect human rights’.
Pursuant to the Resolution, the United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti
(MINUSTAH) was created.

* Lecturer, School of Law and Social Justice, University of Liverpool. Email: r.knox@liv.ac.uk. I would like to thank Tor Krever and Anne Neylon for their incisive comments on drafts of this article, as well as the anonymous reviewers for their very extensive feedback. More generally, this article is the product of a number of long conversations about law, race and capitalism, so I extend sincere thanks
to Brenna Bhandar, Susan Marks, China Mie´ville and Alberto Toscano for all of their insights. As ever, all errors of style and substance remain mine alone.

1 C Mie´ville, ‘Multilateralism as Terror: International Law, Haiti and Imperialism’ 19 Finnish
Yearbook of International Law (2008) 63.

London Review of International Law, Volume 4, Issue 1, 2016, 81–126
doi:10.1093/lril/lrw004 Advanced Access publication 24 February 2016
 The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All r