ESIL Interest Group History of International Law

ESIL Interest Group History of International Law

Friday, 23 November 2018

OPEN ACCESS: Book Series Studien Zur Geschichte des Völkerrechts (Nomos)

(image source: Nomos)

The peer-reviewed book series Studien zur Geschichte des Völkerrechts (Baden-Baden:Nomos Verlag) has decided to publish its most recent volumes, from 2016 on, in open access.

The books listed below can be downloaded in PDF, for free:

Ruth Lambertz-Pollan, Auf dem Weg zu Souveränität und Westintegration (1948-1955). Der Beitrag des Völkerrechtlers und Diplomaten Wilhelm Grewe (vol. 34) (ISBN 9783845272504)

Abstract:
Wilhelm Grewe (1911-2000) begann seine Karriere als Völkerrechtler im Dritten Reich. Bereits während der frühen Nachkriegsjahre setzte er sich für eine juristische Regelung der Beziehungen zwischen Deutschland und den Besatzungsmächten ein, bevor ihm Konrad Adenauer 1951 die Verhandlungen für den „Deutschlandvertrag“ übertrug.Diese Fallstudie, die erste umfassende Arbeit über Wilhelm Grewe, untersucht, welchen Einfluss er in den Jahren 1948-1955 als Berater auf die Verhandlungen über die westdeutsche Souveränität und Westintegration der Bundesrepublik ausübte. Sie zeigt insbesondere, wie die tagtäglichen Arbeits- und Entscheidungsprozesse auf der Arbeitsebene konkret abliefen. Hinterfragt wird auch Grewes Handlungsspielraum auf nationaler und internationaler Ebene. Der wechselseitige Einfluss von Politik und Völkerrecht ist für die Bewertung seiner Rolle ein Schlüsselelement.Die Autorin ist Maître de conférences an der Universität Nantes.

Jakob Zollmann, Naulila 1914. World War I in Angola and International Law (vol. 35) (ISBN 9783845271606)

Abstract:
Die völkerrechtshistorische Studie beschäftigt sich mit den Auswirkungen des Ersten Weltkriegs in Deutsch-Südwestafrika (Namibia) und Angola.

Dante Fedele, Naissance de la diplomatie moderne, XIIIe-XVIIe siècles. L'ambassadeur au croisement du droit, de la morale et de la politique (vol. 36) (ISBN 9783845284361)

Abstract:
The author investigates the birth of modern diplomacy. Drawing on a wide-ranging body of textual materials dealing with the ambassador from the 13th to the 17th century, he analyses how that figure was developed within a complex constantly renewed field of interaction between law, ethics and politics, where theory and practise are intertwined in an unresolved dialectical interaction. The first part examines how the legal status of the ambassador was shaped during the late Middle Ages and how this process influenced early-modern scholarship on diplomacy. The second part investigates how the emergence of the modern State both reinvigorated and reshaped the scholarly approaches to the different themes linked to the figure of the ambassador. The third part proposes an account of how the professional status of the ambassador developed within the examined body of literature. Through the prism of these approaches, diplomacy appears as a foundational matrix of modern political rationality.

Julia Schreiner, Neutralität nach "Schweizer Muster"? Österreichische Völkerrechtslehre zurimmerwährenden Neutralität, 1955–1989 (vol. 37) (ISBN 9783845284750)

Abstract:
Permanent neutrality – a chance or more a burden for a young nation?In 1955 Austria gained back its sovereignty with signing the State Treaty of Vienna. Before that, Austria took over the obligation of becoming a permanent neutral state in the Moscow Memorandum.This study focuses on the efforts of Austrian politics, science and people to position the country in Europe and in the United Nations within the framework of the Cold War.The analysis shows how the semantics and the functions of the permanent neutrality have changed from 1955 to 1989 and how the Austrian citizens have contemplated the neutrality of their state. Moreover the study explores the interdependency between political developments and scientific research and, as a consequence of that, the role neutrality played on a political level. The examination reveals the various definitions of neutrality and points out the significance it still has today.

Nina Keller-Kemmerer, Die Mimikry des Völkerrechts. Andres Bellos "Principios de Derecho Internacional" (vol. 38) (ISBN 9783845288604)

Abstract:
To this day, the history of international law is dominated by a Eurocentric historiography in which non-European worlds play a passive role at best. Master narratives of universalisation and progress may include their histories; however, they appear not in the form of actors, but as mere receivers.By analysing the first Hispano-American textbook on international law, this transdisciplinary study questions this narrative of passivity. In his compendium, published in 1833, the Chilean polymath Andrés Bello translated Euro-pean doctrines of international law for use in the context of the “New World”. Using a postcolonial approach, the study demonstrates that the imitation of the European discourse on international law was not a purely passive and submissive act, but deeply ambivalent behaviour which opens up a space for resistance and is reminiscent of Homi K. Bhabha’s concept of mimicry.
More information on the Nomos website.