Empire on Trial: Bohdan Winiarski and Cold War Formalism in the South West Africa Case

• In Event: Law, Landscapes, and Legitimacy: Polish Professionals and the Conquest of Africa

Abstract

In 1966, after years of complicated proceedings, the International Court of Justice in the Hague ruled that Ethiopia and Liberia could not challenge racial discrimination practiced by South Africa in Namibia. This paper explores the involvement of a key, yet overlooked player in the case, the Polish Judge at the ICJ Bohdan Winiarski (1884-1969). Winiarski, believed to hold formalist views, in 1962 defied the Socialist-Global South bloc and delivered a dissenting opinion against the decision which initially allowed consideration of the petition against South Africa. He later supported dismissing the case altogether in 1966.
Why exactly did a Polish judge choose not to oppose apartheid? Through previously unexplored archival sources and a contextual reading of his intellectual trajectory, this paper historicizes Winiarski’s outlooks on law and imperialism and shows how they interacted with crucial divisions of the time. Winiarski’s outlook on imperialism, racial discrimination, and the role of law in international relations was shaped by his East-Central European experiences, and his flexible position towards Empire—as a nationalist activist at some historical moments, and accommodator to Empire at others. This background made mobilizing on the side of the anti-apartheid struggle very difficult. Moreover, Winairski was concerned with the pressing 1960s Cold War issues: underlining his distance from the geopolitical agenda of the socialist state and defending the autonomy of the legal profession domestically.

Author

• Jakub Szumski, U of Jena (Germany)