This article explores the role of narratives in the use of information visualization by international legal scholars. It adds theoretical depth to the choice of visualization and connects different strands of international legal scholarship to reflect on new methodological directions of international law linked to networks and complexity. The article argues that the use of networks for the visualization of the interactions in the international legal system serves the purpose of transmitting to the reader narratives of international law. Scholars rarely explain the choices they make when using information visualization, especially so with more creative pictures of networks, and frequently treat them simply as didactical illustrations of complex information. Yet, the use of visualizations is linked to certain narratives of international law. This article explores how network aesthetics contribute to a narrative of international law as a complex system, a system that is multidirectional and multifaceted.
This article explores the role of narratives in the use of information visualization by international legal scholars. It adds theoretical depth to the choice of visualization and connects different strands of international legal scholarship to reflect on new methodological directions of international law linked to networks and complexity. The article argues that the use of networks for the visualization of the interactions in the international legal system serves the purpose of transmitting to the reader narratives of international law. Scholars rarely explain the choices they make when using information visualization, especially so with more creative pictures of networks, and frequently treat them simply as didactical illustrations of complex information. Yet, the use of visualizations is linked to certain narratives of international law. This article explores how network aesthetics contribute to a narrative of international law as a complex system, a system that is multidirectional and multifaceted.