The Power of Words in International Relations: Birth of an Anti-Whaling Discourse

摘要

In 1991 Anthony D'Amato and Sudhir Chopra published an influential article entitled: 'Whales: their emerging right to life' (American Journal of International Law 85: 21-62.). In six stages - from regarding whales as a free resource via regulation of whaling, conservation, protection and preservation of whales to their entitlement to life - the authors saw a 'broadening of consciousness' on part of the whalers and the population at large, finally including in their decisions not only humans, but 'as a whole, the planet on which we live' (D'Amato and Chopra 1991: 49). This broadening of consciousness, D'Amato and Chopra contended, was nothing less than 'part of a relentless, historically necessary progression' (ibid.: 50).