Valeria Vázquez Guevara and Claerwen O’Hara on ‘We, the peoples of the Earth’: ALBA, populism and the making of an alternative international law (London Review of International Law)

 "‘We, the peoples of the Earth’: ALBA, populism and the making of an alternative international law"
Claerwen O’Hara, Valeria Vázquez Guevara
London Review of International Law
Published online: May 2025

Abstract: This article explores the populist approach to international law of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of our America (ALBA). Over the past decade, there has been a proliferation of scholarship depicting populist politics as hostile to international law. Yet, across the global South, there are examples of leaders promoting regional unity, creating multilateral alliances, and engaging with international law, all while advancing a populist discourse based around an idea of ‘the people’. We argue that ALBA is one such example. Focusing on its activities as a fluid coalition in international institutions between 2009 and 2019, we demonstrate how ALBA developed a unique technique of international legal engagement and contestation, based around claims to represent ‘the people’ (or ‘peoples’) of the earth. In this way, ALBA shows how the adoption of a populist register can provide an alternative way of both belonging to, and resisting, the international legal order.

HKU Law Welcomes Prof. Valeria Vázquez Guevara

Welcome to Prof. Valeria Vázquez Guevara, who joins the Faculty of Law as an Assistant Professor.

Valeria researches and teaches across the areas of international law, law-and-humanities, and land/property law. Valeria’s research engages with law-and-humanities methodologies to address questions of international law, its institutions, contestations, and geopolitical implications, especially between North-South and South-South actors. The research builds on Valeria’s personal and professional experiences in international development and peacebuilding projects in El Salvador, Spain, the Basque Country, and South Africa.

Valeria is the author of Truth Commissions and International Law (Cambridge University Press, in press). The book examines how Truth Commissions deal with the plurality of (rival) accounts that exist across communities to establish an authoritative account of the past. It expands on her doctoral thesis at Melbourne Law School, which won the University of Melbourne Chancellor’s Prize for Excellence in the PhD Thesis and Melbourne Law School’s Harold Luntz Prize for Best Doctoral Thesis. Valeria’s next major research project focuses on the historical and contemporary relationship between ASEAN and international law, with a particular focus on land tenure issues.

Valeria serves as member of the executive committee of the Law, Literature and Humanities Association of Australasia, and as co-convener of the Critical Approaches to International Law Interest Group of the European Society of International Law (ESIL). Previously, Valeria has served as co-chair of the History and Theory of International Law Interest Group of the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law (2022-2025), and as Managing Editor and Editorial Board member of the Australian Feminist Law Journal (2021-2023).

Valeria Vázquez Guevara Awarded the Chancellor's Prize 2024 (Humanities, Creative Arts and Social Sciences)

Congratulations to Valeria Vázquez Guevara, whose PhD Thesis “Truth Commissions: The Authority of International Law and the State after Conflict” was awarded the Chancellor's Prize 2024 by The University of Melbourne. The thesis was supervised by Professor Sundhya Pahuja and Professor Shaun McVeigh. The thesis forms the basis of Valeria's forthcoming monograph, Truth Commissions and International Law: Jurisdiction, Representation, Authority (under contract, Cambridge University Press).

     Background on the prize: The Chancellor's Prize for Excellence in the PhD Thesis is awarded by the University of Melbourne each year to up to six nominees. A seventh award may be made to an Indigenous candidate. The awards recognize the quality of the research theses including international reach, impact or potential impact of the topic, publications or other research outputs. Please click here for more details regarding the prize.

Valeria Vázquez Guevara Awarded the Harold Luntz Graduate Research Thesis Prize 2023

Congratulations to Valeria Vázquez Guevara, whose PhD Thesis “Truth Commissions: The Authority of International Law and the State after Conflict” was awarded the Harold Luntz Graduate Research Thesis Prize 2023 by the Melbourne Law School. The thesis was supervised by Professor Sundhya Pahuja and Professor Shaun McVeigh. The thesis forms the basis of Valeria's forthcoming monograph, Truth Commissions and International Law: Jurisdiction, Representation, Authority (under contract, Cambridge University Press).

     Background on the prize: The Harold Luntz Graduate Research Thesis Prize is awarded annually to the Melbourne Law School graduate research student judged to have presented the best thesis in the previous year, provided that the nominee meets an overall level of excellence required for the award. It is named for Emeritus Professor Harold Luntz, a world expert on torts law and a former dean and professor at Melbourne Law School.

Welcome the new Global Academic Fellow Dr Valeria Vázquez Guevara!

Welcome to Dr Valeria Vázquez Guevara who joined the HKU Faculty of Law as a Global Academic Fellow!

Dr Valeria Vázquez Guevara is a Salvadoran-Spanish scholar of international law and institutions. Valeria’s research engages with ‘law and humanities’ scholarship in addressing questions of international law, its institutions, and geopolitical implications, especially between North-South and South-South states and actors. The research builds on Valeria’s personal and professional experiences in international development and peacebuilding projects in El Salvador, Spain, the Basque Country, and South Africa.
     As a Global Fellow, Valeria’s post-doctoral research, provisionally titled “North-South Encounters: International Law and the Geopolitics of Contestation”, examines how global South states and actors have pushed for different ways of understanding, and imagining, international law. Here Valeria is particularly interested in how the global South develops creative (and unexpected) diplomatic practices to engage with, and pushback against, international law and institutions.
     Prior to joining HKU, Valeria undertook doctoral studies at Melbourne Law School, under the supervision of Professors Sundhya Pahuja and Shaun McVeigh. Valeria’s doctoral thesis examined the relationship between Truth Commissions and international law. The thesis focused on the ways in which this relationship produces an official account of past violence and promises of future community, which fundamentally conditions how communities live together in the aftermath of violent conflict. Methodologically, the thesis analyzed the representation and contestation of authority deployed by three cultural objects associated with three Truth Commissions: a literary prologue (Argentina 1983-1984), a museum of memory (Chile, 1990-1991), and a tapestry (El Salvador, 1992-1993). This research has been published in Leiden Journal of International Law, London Review of International Law, the Routledge Handbook of International Law and the Humanities, and will form the basis of a monograph titled Truth Commissions: The Authority of International Law and the State after Conflict.
     Valeria is also collaborating on two research projects. One is with Dr Claerwen O’Hara (La Trobe Law School) examining the legal-political initiatives of the multilateral organization, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of our America (‘ALBA’ for its acronym in Spanish). This collaboration also includes a workshop on ‘International Law in the early 2000s’. The other project is with Dr Eliana Cusato (University of Amsterdam’s Centre for International Law). The first part of the collaboration involved a seminar series in 2021, examining the relationship between international law, transitional justice and power. The online series brought together nine speakers from universities in Australia, India, South Africa, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. This collaboration will continue in 2023-2024 with a series of lectures and research workshop on international law and the political economy of reparations.
     Valeria serves as managing editor of the Australian Feminist Law Journal, as co-chair of the History and Theory of International Law Interest Group of the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law (ANZSIL), and as a member of the executive committee of the Law, Literature and Humanities Association of Australasia.
     Valeria holds a PhD from Melbourne Law School (Australia), an MA in Peace Studies from the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame (US), an MA in Sociology of Law from the International Institute for the Sociology of Law (Basque Country/Spain), and an LLB from the University of Granada (Spain).

Research Areas:

• Public International Law
• International Law and Politics
• Transitional Justice and Post-Conflict Institutions
• International Law and Development
• Law and Humanities