CALL FOR PAPERS: International Law and Time (Graduate Institute, Geneva, 12-13 June 2015)

(image source: graduateinstitute.ch)

The Department of International Law at the Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies (Geneva) organizes a conference on "International Law and Time".

Time is an inherent component of many of the most important international law concepts. However, it also fundamentally determines international law as a field. International law has been in constant dynamic change since its inception. Capturing and understanding this change in time is one of the discipline’s fundamental challenges, as is the difficulty of working with the constantly changing materiae of international law in practice.
The Graduate Institute's International Law Department is opening a call for papers to create an opportunity to reflect and debate about the fundamentals of international law in depth. The conference is open to both junior and senior international law scholars and practitioners. The deadline for abstract submissions is February 15, 2015. The Conference will be held at the Graduate Institute's Barton site.

The conference will be structured in six panels:

1.    Attributing Meaning to Time: Visions of History and Future
2.    International Law on a Given Day
3.    Role of Time in Creation and Operation of Norms
4.    International Law between Change and Stability
5.    Continuity, Discontinuity, Recurrence
6.    Regulating the Past: The Problem of Retroactivity

 Panel descriptions:

Panel 1 – Attributing Meaning to Time: Visions of History and Future

How do lawyers' conceptions of history (both in their visions of the future and representations of the past) influence the structure of international law and the idea we have of it? As shown by authors like Jacob Taubes, different forms of eschatological beliefs (regarding, that is, the final events of history and the destiny of humanity) have strongly influenced several fields of western culture, from philosophy to politics. Is international law immune from these dynamics or is it itself the consequence of particular "prophecies"? For instance, what impact did the Kantian idea of a "History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose" have on the development of contemporary international law and some of its distinctive features (e.g. the idea of an "international community" or the establishment of international organizations)? Will globalization lead to legal fragmentation or legal integration, and what impact may these different visions of the future have on the development of international law? Similar questions may be raised regarding the different ways international law's history is narrated today. How does the way we think of past heritage influence our present conception of international law?

Panel 2 – International Law on a Given Day

What conduct does international law permit or prohibit as of today? What as of 1st January of last year? How does one determine whether there is any law whatsoever? The foundation for any legal undertaking is the ability to ascertain the content of international law at a given moment. However, in reality this is often quite a challenging exercise. International law displays a high measure of fluidity thanks to being in large part customary, and because it assigns a normative character to relevant practice that modifies the content of existing international treaties. How should one work with this dynamic character of international law, with norms being created through a decentralized and heterogeneous process? Can one identify the precise moment in time a customary rule has come into existence? It has been argued that the content of international law is an inherently ex post facto construct. If so, what are the implications on the regulatory power of international law?

Panel 3 – Role of Time in the Creation and Operation of Norms

What are the various forms of conceiving and measuring time in international law and what bearing do these choices have on the creation and operation of norms? Temporal notions are especially prominent in the identification of legally relevant facts that contribute to law-making processes such as the traditional requirement of usus longaevus in the formation of customary international law. Moreover, the use of certain techniques dispels contingency from the judicial process, as exemplified by the seemingly rigorous notion of critical date and its ramifications for applicable law, or the temporal notion of continuity that buttresses effective territorial occupation. In treaty law, there is a strong dialectic tension between past and future, especially regarding treaty interpretation and the accompanying notions of original meaning, object and purpose, and effectiveness.

Panel 4 - International Law between Change and Stability

International law is in constant tension between the need to adapt to changing circumstances and its vocation towards maintaining systemic stability. How is this tension reconciled? What prompts changes to occur and what are the mechanisms of change in international law? Additionally, while analyzing the dynamic development of international law, any change in international law often needs to be detected and evaluated. How can such ongoing change be identified and worked with in the practice of international law?

Panel 5 – Continuity, Discontinuity, Recurrence

Ideas and concepts in international law disappear and come back again transformed. The idea of self-determination, which was transfigured from a call for democratic self-government into a cry for independence, is a prime example. The notion of international responsibility and its relationship to its protean avatars within the law of prize and diplomatic protection presents another illustration of conceptual notions traveling overtime. This panel discusses the presence of past concepts in different contexts and moments, as well as their flexibility, autonomy and capacity to reinvigorate the future.

Panel 6 – Regulating the Past: The Problem of Retroactivity

The debate surroinding retroactivity in international law has so far mainly concerned the fields of dispute settlement, criminal law and human rights, with regard to the ex-post facto prohibition of crimes and punishments. Yet, the notion of retroactivity is rich in its implications for the relationship between time and law generally, and is relevant for all branches of international law. To what extent can States "regulate the past", and what are the implications of contemporary facts and actions on the way lawyers assess the past? What is the difference between an ex-post facto rule and an innovative interpretation of a norm? Against what law shall past acts be assessed in case of secession or accession of States? And how can international law help societies come to terms with their past?

 

The call for papers can be found here.

ARTICLE: Perez on Lincoln's legacy for American International Law (Emory International Law Review 2014, 167-236)

 (image source: wikimedia commons)

Prof. A. Perez (Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law) posted "Lincoln's legacy for American International Law" on SSRN.

Abstract:

This Article argues that Lincoln reframed U.S. rhetoric and practice of international law in ways that subordinated customary international law and elevated general principles of law and treaty commitments. It explains that this reconceptualization was based on Lincoln’s constitutional theory, through which the U.S. was transformed from a plural a sui generis institutional arrangement in the community of states, a Madisonian hybrid, into a singular nation-state performing a sui generis role in the community of states. After explaining the shift in constitutional theory and practice and international law theory and practice, the Article argues that these two shifts were in turn grounded on Lincoln’s ethical commitment to reasoning from first principles, rather than social practice, leavened with modest self-doubt and humility in the exercise of reason. Under Lincoln’s view, the United States would serve as an exemplar of a particular kind of society and the kind of person Lincoln thought normatively superior, a vehicle for the formation of a kind of person he believed made such a society possible, and perhaps even a force in the world for the progressive and universal realization of those ideals. Much as Lincoln’s achievement was to refashion the American state, Lincoln’s vision of American sovereignty made possible and necessary an entirely new approach to international law in which the American state re-defined its relation to the world and its ethical mission coupling reason with restraint in ways from which we can still learn today.

(source: Legal History Blog)

BOOK: Andrew Fitzmaurice, Sovereignty, Property and Empire (1500-2000)

Andrew Fitzmaurice (Sydney) published Sovereignty, Property and Empire (1500-2000) at Cambridge University Press.

Abstract:

This book analyses the laws that shaped modern European empires from medieval times to the twentieth century. Its geographical scope is global, including the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and the Poles. Andrew Fitzmaurice focuses upon the use of the law of occupation to justify and critique the appropriation of territory. He examines both discussions of occupation by theologians, philosophers and jurists, as well as its application by colonial publicists and settlers themselves. Beginning with the medieval revival of Roman law, this study reveals the evolution of arguments concerning the right to occupy through the School of Salamanca, the foundation of American colonies, seventeenth-century natural law theories, Enlightenment philosophers, eighteenth-century American colonies and the new American republic, writings of nineteenth-century jurists, debates over the carve up of Africa, twentieth-century discussions of the status of Polar territories, and the period of decolonisation.

(source: ESCLH blog)

WORKSHOP: International Investment Law and History (Frankfurt, 13-14 March 2015)

The MPI for Comparative Public Law and International Law, the Johann-Wolfgang Goethe-University Frankfurt and the University of Glasgow's School of Law co-organize a workshop on International Investment Law and History on 13 and 14 March 2015.

As in previous years, the workshop will bring together academics and practitioners and provide them with a forum for open and frank exchanges. If you are interested in participating, please contact Sabine Schimpf, Merton Centre for European Integration and International Economic Order, University of Frankfurt, RuW, Grüneburgplatz 1, 60323 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

The program can be found here. Speakers include Stephan Schill, Jochen von Bernstorff, our members Christian Tams, Jörg Kammerhofer, and others. Two panels address historical cases of investment law, going back to the 19th century.

Source: International Law Reporter.

BOOK: Robert Kolb (ed.), Commentaire sur le Pacte de la Société des Nations (Bruylant, 2014)

 

Bruylant just published Prof. Robert Kolb (Geneva)'s collective commentary on the League of Nations' Covenant. 1400 pages cover a fundamental text for the history of international law, as well as our understanding of the UN Charter. 

Contributions by Pierre d’Argent, Louis Balmond, Giulio Bartolini, Christian Birebent, Laurence Boisson de Chazournes, François Bugnion, Emmanuel Bourdoncle, Vincent Chetail, Giorgio Conetti, Olivier Corten, Florian Couveinhes-Matsumoto, Luigi Crema, Yann Decorzant, Martin Denis, Giovanni Distefano, Gleider I Hernández, Ivan Ingravallo, Pierre Klein, Robert Kolb, Anne Lagerwall, Makane Vittorio Mainetti, Moïse Mbengue, Karin Oellers-Frahm, Bernardine Pejovic, Vassilis Pergantis, Géraldine Ruiz, Markus Schmidt, Matthias Schulz, Massimo Starita, Antonios Tzanakopoulos, Agatha Verdebout, Sylvain Vité, Nigel D. White and Emmanuelle Wyatt. 

The book can be ordered here and is available online on strada.

NOTICE: The Peace Palace Library and the History of International Law

The excellent website of the Peace Palace Library (The Hague) posted three messages relevant for the history of international law:

•  The announcement of  an upcoming lecture by dr. Maartje Abbenhuis (Auckland) on the 1899 and 19707 Hague Conferences, neutrality and the First World War (cf. dr. Abbenhuis' most recent monography on international great power politics in the long nineteenth century and neutrality at Cambridge UP)
• An interview with Prof. dr. Henk Nellen (Erasmus University) on the publication of the English translation of his impressive Grotius-biography (link) (book webpage at Martinus Nijhoff/Brill)
• "Grotius and the Dutch Jurists: the Bibliography Continues?" (interview with Dr. D. Osler, MPI Frankfurt) (link)

CFP: After Empire: The League of Nations and the former Habsburg Lands (Vienna, 11-12 December 2015); DEADLINE: 31 January 2015

 (image: univie.ac.at)

We received the following Call for Papers:

If the Austro-Hungarian empire gave way to a new order of nation-states at the end of the First World War, the birth of that order coincided with a broader new international settlement with the League of Nations at its heart. In light of new literature on the relationship between empire and international order, as well as on the relationship between regional and international orders, this workshop will examine the interaction of the League of Nations and its sister organizations, like the ILO, with the former Habsburg lands. Across a range of economic, social, political, and legal domains, international institutions shaped and guaranteed the new order in Central Europe. At the same time, statesmen, bureaucrats and experts from the successor states embarked on influential careers in the new organizations.

Considering the passive involvement of the monarchy with the new internationalism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, as well as the empire’s own legacies of supranational organization, we intend to explore the networks of influence that bound the successor states to the institutions of the interwar order. To what extent were those interactions inflected by imperial pasts? Were some successor states more active participants in those institutions than others? In which ways and on which occasions did the League and the successor states offer each other political opportunities?

The call for papers for this workshop is now open. If you would like to apply please submit a paper abstract of around 200 words by the end of January 2015 to peter.becker@univie.ac.at or ngw2103@columbia.edu. We are particularly (but not exclusively) interested in the following themes:

- The League and the new political order in east central Europe
- People in the League of Nations (careers of bureaucrats from successor states)
- Intellectual Cooperation & Health
- Economy & State organization
- ILO & Social Policy
- Peace & Borders
- Minorities & Migration

The workshop is convened by Peter Becker (Vienna) and Natasha Wheatley (New York/Sydney). It is a joint venture between the Austrian Institute of Historical Research, Vienna, and the Laureate Research Program in International History, University of Sydney, and will take place at the University of Vienna from December 11-12, 2015. Accommodation will be provided for those applicants, whose papers have been accepted, and travel subsidies will also be available.

PODCAST: Just war in canon law (Concordance des Temps, France Culture, 14 November 2014)

(Pope Urbanus II calls for the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont, 1095)

The French radio station France Culture broadcasted an episode of Jean-Noël Jeanneney's Concordance des Temps around the just war doctrine in medieval canon law and theology. Since the roots of present-day jus ad bellum lie in christian doctrine, the ESILHIL-blog thought this of sufficient interest to our members and readers. Jeanneney, former president of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, professor at Sciences Po Paris and former Secretary of State under François Mitterrand, invited medievist André Vauchez, member of the Institut de France and the Académie des inscriptions et des belles lettres, to discuss the Church's role as an actor in international relations and as a lawmaker. An erudite conversation on the (im)possible morality of the use of force, proportionality,  auctoritas, recta intentio, causa justa and sovereignty.

Podcast here.

CALL FOR PAPERS: ESIL CONFERENCE 2015 (OSLO) - DEADLINE 15 FEBRUARY 2015

(image source: goodlifereport.com) 

ESIL's Interest Group "History of International Law" invites submissions for a workshop on the (now annual) ESIL conference. For 2015, Oslo has been chosen as venue, around the theme "The Judicialization of International Law - A Mixed Blessing?". 

Please find our call below:

Dreaming of the International Rule of Law – A History of International Courts and Tribunals


(image, "Los caprichos de Goya - "The dream of Reason Creates Monsters" (Google Art Project) source: Wikimedia Commons)

On the occasion of The ESIL 11th Annual Conference, to be held in Oslo, 10 – 12 September 2015 (The Judicialization of International Law – A Mixed Blessing?'), the ESIL’s interest group on the History of International Law http://esilhil.blogspot.co.uk/ invites submissions, in English or French.

For all the current anxiety surrounding the judicialization of international politics, the contemporary growth of international courts and tribunals, which shows the continuing appeal of the “domestic analogy” in shaping the intellectual imagination of the discipline, may arguably be considered a dream made true for the long-standing aspirations of professional relevance of international lawyers. The promise of a more perfected international rule of law is among the factors that account for the fact that the establishment of new international courts and tribunals has accompanied the proliferation of international institutions and the diversification of international law for the last 25 years’-long post-cold war period.

Against this background, submissions are welcomed in two interdependent categories. On the first hand, the IGHIL invites submissions addressed to examine the histories of the creation of “successful” international courts and tribunals, in the sense of institutionally established and operative ones. On the other, the IGHIL welcomes submissions addressed to examine the histories of short-lived, aborted or failed international courts and tribunals as well as the history of projects for international courts of tribunals that remained “dead letter” and/or are still “in nuce".

Authors are invited to consider factors of failure/success in the creation, disappearance or non- emergence of international courts and tribunals in light of their legitimacy of origin and exercise as well as other factors. These may include, but are not limited to e.g. the role of particularly inspirational figures or social movements, the contextual-historical relevance of different international legal philosophies or the impact of context-breaking events in the history of international law.

Each submission should include:
– An abstract of no more than 400 words
– The intended language of presentation
– A short curriculum vitae containing the author’s name, institutional affiliation, contact information and e-mail address.

Applications should be submitted to both Ignacio de la Rasilla del Moral and Randall Lesaffer by 15th February 2015. All applicants will be notified of the outcome of the selection process by 15th March 2015.

Selection will be based on scholarly merit and with regard to producing an engaging workshop, without prejudice to gender, seniority, language or geographical location. Please note that the ESIL Interest Group on the History of International Law is unable to provide funds to cover the conference registration fee or related transport and accommodation costs.

The best papers would be eligible for publication in a "symposium" of the Journal of the History of International Law (Brill/Martinus Nijhoff - MPI Heidelberg).

CALL FOR PAPERS: British Influences on International Law 1915-2015(DEADLINE 29 OCTOBER)

International Law Reporter signals a call for submissions from the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, concerning a collective book on "British Influences on International Law 1915-2015". The invitation is aimed at "established academics, early career researchers, doctoral researchers, those with experience in government and other practice, and anoyne else with relevant experience", whether based in Her Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, or elsewhere.

A seminar,  linked to the book, will be held in the first half of 2015. Professor Robert McCorquodale will edit the book, with Jill Barrett, Dr. Andraz Zidar, Anna Riddell and Dr Jean-Pierre Gauci. The book is linked to another project, the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Grotius Society.

The deadline for this call is rather soon, 29 October. Fur further details, we refer to ILR or Dr. Jean-Pierre Gauci (j.gauci@biicl.org).

CONFERENCE: Human Rights, The Last Utopia ? (Brussels, 7 November 2014)

Saint-Louis University (Brussels), the Catholic University of Louvain (Ottignies) and the University of Namur co-organise an interdisciplinary conference within the framework of the Interuniversitary Attraction Pole "Human Rights Integration" (Belgian Scientific Policy) on 7 November 2014.

Program:

1ère session : Séance d’ouverture Présidence : Françoise Tulkens (Professeur émérite UCL, ancien juge à la Cour européenne des droits de l’homme 1998-2012)
9.00 Mot de bienvenue par Philippe Gérard (Université Saint-Louis)
9.10-9.25 Introduction par Julie Ringelheim (FNRS/UCL) et Priscilla Claeys (UCL, Collège d’Etudes Mondiales)
9.25-9.45 Justine Lacroix (ULB), Des droits de l’homme aux droits humains ? Retour sur un débat historiographique à forte portée politique
9.45-9.55 Ludivine Damay (Université Saint-Louis) et Florence Delmotte (FNRS/Université Saint-Louis), Réaction et lancement de la discussion
9.55-10.15 Discussion
10.15-10.30 Pause

2ème session : Droits de l’homme et politique : perspectives socio-historiques
Présidence Pierre-Olivier de Broux (Université Saint-Louis)
10.30-10.50 : Jan Eckle (Universität Freiburg, Allemagne), The Rise of Human Rights Politics on the International Scene in the 1970s
10.50-11.10 Sarah Snyder (American University, Washington), Human Rights Activism and the Cold War
11.10-11.30 Bart De Sutter (Universiteit Antwerpen), The making of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights: (dis)continuities, contradictions and alternatives
11.30-11.45 Eva Brems (Université de Gand), Réaction et lancement de la discussion
11.45-12.15 Discussion
12.15-13.30 Déjeuner

3ème session : Droits de l’homme et mouvements sociaux - 1 
Présidence Koen De Feyter (Université d’Anvers)
13.30-13.50 Neil Stammers (University of Sussex), Human Rights and Social Movements: Theoretical Perspectives
13.50-14.10 Barbara Truffin (ULB), The Use of the Human Rights Concept by Indigenous Peoples
14.10-14.30 Priscilla Claeys (UCL, Collège d’Etudes Mondiales), The Creation of New Rights by the Peasant Movements
14.30-14.45 Geoffrey Pleyers (FNRS/UCL-Cridis/ EHESS), Réaction et lancement de la discussion
14.45-15.15 Discussion
 15.15-15.30 Pause

4ème session : Droits de l’homme et mouvements sociaux - 2 
Présidence Jacques Fierens (Université de Namur)
15.30-15.50 Claire De Galembert (CNRS/ENS Cachan), Droits de l’homme et mouvements religieux
15.50-16.10 Patricia Naftali (FNRS/ULB), Mobilisation des victimes des dictatures en Amérique latine et construction du droit à la vérité
16.10-16.30 Vincent-Arnaud Chappe (Centre Maurice Halbwachs, CNRS), Les syndicats face au droit de la non-discrimination : droits individuels c. droits collectifs ?
16.30-16.45 Julien Pieret (ULB), Réaction et lancement de la discussion
16.45-17.15 Discussion
Conclusions

17.15-17.45 Conclusions par Olivier De Schutter (UCL, Collège d’Europe, ancien Rapporteur spécial des Nations Unies pour le droit à l’alimentation 2008-2014)

17.45 Réception pour les 15 ans du Master complémentaire en droits de l’homme

BOOK-REVIEW: "A Scrap of Paper. Breaking and Making International Law during the Great War" (Isabel V. Hull, Cornell UP, 2014) (H-Net)

(image source: Cornell UP)

H-Law posted a book review by Bruce D. Cohen (North Texas) of Isabel V. Hull's A Scrap of Paper: Breaking and Making International Law during the Great War.

Fulltext here.

JOURNAL: Special issue of the Erasmus Law Review on World War One

(image: battle of Passendale, historien.nl)

The Erasmus Law Review published a special issue in open access on the First World War, containing the following contributions:

• Willem H. van Boon, "The Great War and its Significance for Law, Legal Thinking and Jurisprudence"
• Ignacio de la Rasilla y del Moral, "The Ambivalent Shadow of the Pre-Wilsonian Rise of International Law"
• Nick Efthymiou, "The First World War and Constitutional Law for the Netherlands Indies"
• Paul Mevis & Jan M. Reijntjes, "Hang the Kaiser ! But for What, and Would It Be Justice ?"
• Janwillem Oosterhuis, "Unexpected Circumstances arising from World War I and its Aftermath: 'Open' versus 'Closed' Legal Systems"

WORKSHOP: The History and Theory of Treaty-Making with Indigenous Peoples (London, Queen Mary, 22 October 2014)

(image source: International Law Reporter)

 International Law Reporter announced a workshop on "Treaty-Making with Indigeneous Peoples", organised by the Centre for Law and Society in a Global Context at Queen Mary University (London), on Tuesday 22 October 2014.

The organisers describe their topic as follows:

The issue of indigenous peoples and treaties is one of the most interesting and intriguing questions of international law. The 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples mentions in several places of its Preamble and in Article 37 rights granted by ‘treaties, agreements and other constructive arrangements between States and indigenous peoples are, in some situations, matters of international concern, interest, responsibility and character.’ The workshop will analyse the legacy of these historical treaties with indigenous peoples. It will also assess whether these instruments can play a role in fostering the rights of indigenous peoples within States at a present time.

 More information on Queen Mary's website.

ANNOUNCEMENT: The Global Humanitarianism Research Academy (Leibniz Institute Mainz/ICRC/Exeter)

(image source: ICRC)




The Leibniz Institute for European History (Mainz), the International Committee of the Red Cross and the University of Exeter announce the launch of the "Global Humanitarianism Research Academy", starting July 2015. The initiative is designed to offer training to young researchers in the field of human rights, international law or international relations.

Mission statement:

This international Research Academy will offer research training to a group of advanced international PhD candidates and early postdoctoral scholars selected by the steering committee. It will combine academic sessions at the Leibniz Institute of European History in Mainz and the Imperial and Global History Centre at the University of Exeter with archival sessions at the Archives of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva. The Research Academy is open to early career researchers who are working in the related fields of humanitarianism,humanitarian law, peace and conflict studies as well as human rights covering the period from the 18^th to the 20^th centuries. It supports scholarship on the ideas and practices of humanitarianism in the context of international, imperial and global history thus advancing our understanding of global governance in humanitarian crises of the present.

 An official call will follow later on http://hhr.hypotheses.org/.

CONFERENCE: History and Histories of International Law (Helsinki, 27-28 October 2014)

(image: helsinki.fi)

The Erik Castrén Institute of International Law and Human Rights at Helsinki University organizes a two-day conference on Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 October.

Program:
Runeberg Hall, University Main Building, Fabianinkatu 33 , 2nd floor
Programme
Monday 27 October
9:15
Opening
Martti Koskenniemi, University of Helsinki
9:30
Keynote address Anthony Anghie, University of Utah
10:30 – 11:00
Coffee
11:00– 12:30

Panel I:
Methods of International (Global) Legal History
Anne Orford, University of Melbourne
Thomas Duve, MPI Frankfurt
Chair: Martti Koskenniemi, University of Helsinki

12:30 – 13:30

Lunch break

13:30 – 15:00
Panel II: Transformations of Empire in the 20 - 21 st Century
Nathaniel Berman, Brown University
Matthias Zachmann, University of Edinburgh
Chair: Walter Rech, University of Helsinki

15:00 – 15:30
Coffee

15:30 - 17:00

Panel III: Histories of Human Rights
Lena Halldenius, Lund University
Vasuki Nesiah, New York University
Chair: Paolo Amorosa, University of Helsinki

Tuesday 28 October
9:00 – 10:30

Panel IV:
Non - European Histories of International Law
Lauri Mälksoo, University of Tartu
Kofi Quashigah, University of Ghana
Chair: Manuel Jiménez Fonseca, University of Helsinki

10:30 - 11:00
Coffee

11:00 – 12:30

Panel V: Histories of International Institutions
Doreen Lustig, Tel Aviv University
Jan Klabbers, University of Helsinki
Chair: Mónica García - Salmones, University of Helsinki

CONFERENCE: Treaties of Commerce. Balance of Trade and the European Order of States (Pisa, 26-27 November 2014)

(image: the harbour of Leghorn, Wikimedia Commons)

The University of Pisa organises a very promising conference on the history of international law and trade on 26-27 November, at the palazzo Manfreducci. 

Program:

Wednesday 26 November

9:00-9:15, Antonella Alimento, Università di Pisa, Introduction: The PRIN Project on ‘The Liberty of the Moderns’ and Commercial Treaties

First Session 
Chair: Antonella Alimento, Università di Pisa

9:15-9:30, Koen Stapelbroek, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Commercial Treaties and the Historiography of Eighteenth-Century Politics and Trade: Preliminary Considerations

9:30-10:00, Eric Schnakenbourg, Université de Nantes, Les conditions de l’échange marchand: traités de commerce et droit maritime au XVIIIe siècle

Coffee break

10:30-11:00, Guillaume Calafat, Université de Paris I, Faut-il traiter avec les «Barbaresques»? Commerce, compétition et pouvoir au XVIIIe siècle 

11:00-12:00, Discussion

Lunch

Second Session 
Chair : John Shovlin, New York University

14:30-15:00, José Luís Cardoso, Institute of Social Sciences Lisbon, The Anglo-Portuguese Treaties of Commerce of 1703 and 1810: Opportunities and Constraints of Economic Development

15:00-15:30, Maria Virginia León, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, El Tratado hispano-británico del asiento durante la primera mitad del siglo XVIII

Coffee break

16:00-16:30, Doohwan Ahn, Seoul National University, The Treaty of Utrecht Revisited: The Balance of Trade or the Balance of Power?

16:30-17:00, Koen Stapelbroek, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Global Trade and the Commercial Treaties of the Dutch Republic

17:00-18:00, Discussion

Thursday 27 November

Third Session 
Chair: Koen Stapelbroek, Erasmus University Rotterdam

9:00-9:30, Antonella Alimento, Università di Pisa, From the Balance of Power to the Balance of Commerce Strategy: the French Rejection of the Treaties of Commerce Policy (1713-1763) 

9:30-10:00, John Shovlin, New York University, Remaking the Franco-British Rivalry in India: The Godeheu–Saunders Treaty and the Political Economy of Peaceful Competition

Coffee Break

10:30-11:00, Pascal Dupuy, Université de Rouen, Jeux et enjeux autour du traité de commerce franco-britanique de 1786: les représentations françaises

11:00-11:30, Marc Belissa, Université de Paris 10, Quel commerce pour un peuple républicain? Les débats révolutionnaires sur les traités de commerce de la République française (1792-1799)

11:30-12:30, Discussion

Lunch

Fourth Session 
Chair: José Luís Cardoso, Institute of Social Sciences Lisbon

14,30-15,00 Marco Cavarzere, Ludwig-Maximilian Universität (Munich), The ‘Convention préliminaire de commerce’ between France and Prussia (1753) and the Rise of a New Commercial Nation

15:00-15:30, Christine Lebeau, Université de Paris I, Négocier un traité de commerce en contexte impérial. L’exemple de la Monarchie des Habsbourg dans la deuxième moitié du XVIIIe siècle

Coffee break

16:00-16:30, Biagio Salvemini, Università di Bari, Dans le silence des traités: l’interventionnisme institutionnel dans le commerce entre le Royaume de France et le Royaume de Naples au XVIIIe siècle 

16:30-18:00, Final Discussion 

More information here: http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/termine/id=26048.

INAUGURAL LECTURE: "The Pirate and the Admiral" by Prof. dr. L. Sicking (VU Amsterdam) (Amsterdam, 14 November 2014)

Prof. dr. F.A. van der Duyn Schouten (rector magnificus) and Prof. mr. E. van Sliedregt (dean) invite all persons interested to the inaugural lecture on 14 november 2014 by Prof. dr. L Sicking, member of our Interest Group, as Aemilius Papinianus-Professor of the History of Public International Law at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. 

The lecture ("De piraat en de admiraal", "The Pirate and the Admiral") will be held in Dutch.

The event, followed by a reception, will take place in the Vrije Universiteit's Aula, at 15:45. Togati are kindly invited to present themselves in formal dress.

Address: De Boelelaan 1105, Amsterdam.

Online Course on the First World War (Prof. Christian C. Tams, Glasgow)

Professor Christian C. Tams (Professor of International Law at the University of Glasgow (UK)) will teach a Free Online Course on the Paris Peace Conference and the League of Nations, prepared in collaboration with the BBC (here).  

Presentation:

The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 ended a Great War, but it also designed the post-war future. In 1919, world leaders assembled in Paris redrew the map of the world, partitioned and created countries, and ushered in a new era of international relations. The naivety of the peace-makers of 1919 has been justly criticised. However, in setting up a permanent ‘world organisation’, the League of Nations, they changed the management of world affairs forever…
Produced in collaboration with the BBC, this three-week course will let you retrace the steps of those who took those momentous decisions almost a century ago. You’ll have a chance to assess how, over the past century, world organisations (first the League of Nations, then the United Nations) have become a forum for international cooperation. And you’ll be encouraged to debate many of the issues that have vexed international politics since then.

 

This course aims at the broadest audience, no prior knowledge is required. It is being taught for five hours per week, starting on 13 October 2014, enrolment is free. Participants can purchase a certificate at the end. The trailer is available for download (here).

The ESIL Interest Group History of International Law acclaims initiatives of this nature, since they are in perfect coherence with our purposes and justification statement, "nurturing the academic soil with better tools for promoting a future broader access to university education."

Call for members

Pursuant to the purposes and justifications of the present interest group, published below, Prof. Ignacio de la Rasilla y del Moral (mail) and Prof. Randall Lesaffer (mail) invite all persons interested to adhere to the ESIL Interest Group on the History of International Law, and participate in its activities. Please do not hesitate to contact them by e-mail.

Information on membership of ESIL, the European Society of International Law, can be found on the mother society's website.

Purposes and Justification of the ESIL´s Interest Group on the History of International Law

The professor has no other criterion than his own conscience; 

study no other method than that which is dictated by reason; 

truth, no other system than that born out of nature; 

thought, no other school than free research; 

scientific life, in sum, no other guide, no other principle than an inquiry 

alien to any spirit of exclusivism, to any narrow sense of sect.

“Memoria de 1877” I Boletín de la Institución Libre de Enseñanza 21 (1877)

The interest group on the History of International Law (IGHIL) is intended as a forum for scholarly discussion on current ideas and developments in the field of the History of International Law. It aims to foster debate and promote research collaboration on the history of international law amongst members of the European Society of International Law and within the broader global research community, including through collaborations with interest groups and clusters on the History of International Law and related areas in other national and international academic communities. 

Because of the traditional interdisciplinary pollination of the history of international law, which blends international relations theory and its historical discourse, legal history, the history of ideas, political thought and diplomatic history and it is being further enhanced by a growing diversity of standpoints, the ethos of the interest group shall be interdisciplinary. 

The IGHIL shall be particularly sensitive to transversal engagement with the history of all specialized sectors of international law. 

It will also actively seek collaboration with specialized journals and international publishers in the dissemination of the fruits of its research findings to the greatest possible audience in accordance, whenever possible, with an open-access policy. 

Animated by an all-inclusive ethos of infinite curiosity, IGHIL shall seek to stimulate research on the

history of international law in all parts and regions of the globe throughout different historical epochs while contributing to fostering ever-higher standards of academic excellence in the field. IGHIL aims to do so without ignoring in any manner the development of the history of international law in Europe itself where so much still remains to be done and will seek to foster, in pursuance of the ESIL's foundational goals, “much closer links between those working in the international law field in Western Europe and their counterparts in Eastern and Central Europe”.

Furthermore, the IGHIL shall help to identify many primary and secondary sources in need of digitalization across the world in partnership with the digitalizing sector, thus actively promoting the digitalization of materials on the history of international law. It shall also attempt to provide greater accessibility for research materials in different forms through experimentation with the innovative possibilities opened by new technologies. In an age of open access, this effort will be carried out in direct partnership with the publishing industry for it to experiment with new audio-visual learning enhancing tools in its migration to new technological platforms. 

Last but not least, through engagement with technological innovation, IGHIL will nurture the academic soil with better tools for promoting a future broader access to university education. IGHIL will also endeavor to promote discussion on the role of the history of international law in the legal curriculum as a teaching discipline, and it shall eagerly promote activities oriented at exploring its present and future potential in the classroom. To this end, it shall aim at fostering doctoral and post-doctoral research in the field of the history of international law in the belief, to quote from a leading post-doctoral programme in the social sciences, “that intellectual community, interlocutorship and scholarly synergetic exchanges are fundamental to the early phase of academic career and significantly enhance the quality of the individual research”.

Through its steering research committee, which shall be composed by its 5 elected members who shall serve for a period of 3 years (renewable only once in consecutive terms), the IGHIL will seek, in constant dialogue with its group members, to promote a coherent and well-defined annual research programme in the field with particular attention to the balanced development within its research activities of innovation and scientific consolidation. In doing so, particular attention will be paid to methodological issues – including historiographical methods - and to the enriching development of the history of international through the identification of topic areas in different times and spaces. 

This research programme will be combined with the participation of IGHIL in the commemoration of great historical events with repercussion in the development of international law in a manner that promotes greater historical awareness among international legal scholars, international legal practitioners, international policy-makers and the public in general. 

Composed of a pool of leading specialists, IGHIL will also endeavor to feed the media accurately during major international crises. The IGHIL shall naturally actively participate in the annual workshops and biannual conferences of the ESIL and foster regular joint workshops in collaboration with other interest groups and clusters on the History of International Law and related disciplines within and beyond Europe. 

While the working languages of the group shall be those of the Society, namely English and French, IGHIL shall seek to actively promote engagement with scholarly work produced in the other languages by encouraging translations and the cultivation of linguistic research skills among its members in accordance with the ESIL´s foundational commitment to”promoting linguistic diversity while at the same time maximising the ability of members to communicate effectively with one another”.