Tu Globalista: Lo que sucede en el mundo.

Heraclitus was a philosopher from the Ionian Islands, another philosopher from the rich Greek philosophical inheritance. He is famous for the dubbed phrase «you cannot step into the same river twice«, or so it goes the phrase. This was also paraphrased by Plato, who was much aware of Heraclitus’s thinking.

But why is there a level of connection between Heraclitus and International law? The answer comes from a perspective of complex systems. But how Heraclitus relates to complexity theory in the first place, and what does this has to do with international law?

Heraclitus’s thinking has profound meaning from a philosophical perspective and also from the philosophy of science. Such a connection between Heraclitus and complexity comes from the book «Complexity» written by Mitchell Waldrop. Almost in the last part of his book, Waldrop references Richard Lewontin, who differentiates the work of scientists in two different worlds. For one side were the «Platonists,» and for the other were the «Heraclitians.»

In the first place, to be a Platonist is to try to look at the world as something that should be in equilibrium, and if it is outside such equilibrium, it is the scientist’s task to push it back to such equilibrium. If there are untidy forces, the Platonists must put order in the seeming chaos.

On the other side are the Heraclitians, which basically see the world in constant motion; that is, the world is in constant flux, and there is an endless continued motion within the world. In other words, the universe is in constant motion, since the river even if it is the same, it is in constant motion.

Two ways of looking at the universe also impact how to do science. The Platonists can identify themselves with the reductionist view inherited from Newton. The Newtonian way of looking at the universe was convinced that simple rules could explain the universe. On the other side, the Heraclitians relate and identify more with complexity theorists, the ones that see the universe as the result of a series of interactions between small particles generating immense and almost unpredictable situations.

Such perspectives can also relate to how we do science when observing international law, we are almost convinced from a reductionist and Platonist, that there are simple rules that can help in understanding international law as a system. The sources of international law will help us interpret the «universe» of international law. Even if such a vision, within its own perspective, is correct, it fails to explain why international law as a system keeps changing, why terms «evolve,» and where change comes from. In essence how international law keeps evolving hand in hand with changes with the agents that compose international law, mainly states and non-state actors.

Such differentiation in international law and philosophy of law, can relate to Tamanaha’s ideas in his book «A Realistic Theory of Law.» In here, there are three main theoretical perspectives, as explained by Tamanaha, analytical jurisprudence (or legal positivism), natural law and historical-sociological jurisprudence. In my personal view the Platonists relate directly to analytical jurisprudence, and to some degree with Natural law.

I consider that the theoretical perspective of historical-sociological jurisprudence, or as it is named by Tamanaha social legal theory; find a better expresion to complexity theory. Social legal theory takes into account the interaction of the agents. Where law is influenced by «social, economic, cultural, political, ecological, and technological circumstances» (Tamanaha 2017, 9-10), when Tamanaha explains this approach further, connects the idea of Heraclitus that I said before, law as a river is never in repose.

Under this approach, Tamanaha explains the vision of Eugene Ehrlich where society is in constant change and transformation, and with that comes along the law. «The agents on the front lines of legal changes, Ehrlich identified, are the multitude of lawyers who modify legal forms or draw up legal documents or construct new legal arrangements to meet novel social and economic demands. Law is never in repose.» (Tamanaha 2017, 22) In other words, the river of international law is never in repose. It is in constant change, such is complexity talking, and that my friend is just beautiful.