ARTICLE: Andreas VON ARNAULD, "How to Illegalize Past Injustice: Reinterpreting the Rules of Intertemporality", EJIL XXXII (2021), Nr. 2, 401-432

 

(image source: OUP)

Abstract:

Attempts to legally tackle cases of historical injustice are often confronted with the problem that the events in question were not considered illegal at their time and that, in general, legal rules should not be applied retroactively. The present article suggests a conceptual framework to carefully stretch the dogmas of intertemporal law by introducing, via ethical principles as part of positive law of the time, contemporary contestation of inhumane actions and practices. Even though such contestation might not yet be enough to overturn a widely shared apologetic view among lawyers and states, it is argued that the violation of ethical-legal principles as such should give rise to a duty to give satisfaction under the law of state responsibility. In most cases of historical injustice brought to court, members of victimized groups aim at acknowledgment of their plight and at a reappraisal of the past that includes their experiences. In line with this objective, the present article makes a special case for a state obligation to negotiate with the victims of historical injustice or their descendants.

(read more here: DOI 10.1093/ejil/chab037) 

BOOK: Cristina BRAVO LOZANO & Antonio ÁLVAREZ-OSSORIO ALVARIÑO (eds.), Los embajadores. Representantes de la soberanía, garantes del equilibrio, 1659-1748 (Madrid: Marcial Pons, Historia, 2021), 472 p., ISBN 9788417945497, € 32,3

 

(image source: Marcial Pons)

Book abstract:

La figura del embajador es considerada una de las más destacadas en la cultura cortesana en la Edad Moderna. Los estudios sobre la diplomacia vienen experimentado un notable dinamismo en las últimas décadas. Trascendiendo su práctica negociadora, el papel ejercido por estos legados se dirigió hacia la representación de la soberanía y los intereses de príncipes, repúblicas e, incluso, corporaciones provinciales, y a la búsqueda del mantenimiento de hegemonías en nombre de un supuesto equilibrio entre potencias. Desde distintas perspectivas, tomando como ámbito de referencia la monarquía de España, esta obra aborda la singularidad de tan polifacético ministro para arrojar luz sobre su protagonismo en la transformación de Europa y su proyección en otros continentes durante la transición de los siglos XVII y XVIII. A lo largo de sus contribuciones se destacarán su «cursus honorum» y la instrumentalización del rango como plataforma de ascenso político y social, los valores, virtudes y obligaciones inherentes en el cargo, las estrategias y desempeño de sus funciones ordinarias en las embajadas y las esferas palatinas —con particular énfasis en la mediación de reinas y damas de la corte—, la contribución de sus gestiones en el restablecimiento de la paz en el marco sucesorio, la dimensión cultural y las vías formales e informales de autorrepresentación.

Table of contents:

Introducción, Cristina Bravo Lozano y Antonio Álvarez-Ossorio Alvariño.-I. EL CURSUS HONORUM DIPLOMÁTICO, ¿PROFESIONALIZACIÓN DEL ETHOS O MEDIO DE ASCENSO POLÍTICO?-Diplomático y publicista: François-Paul de Lisola en la corte de Madrid (1665-1666), Charles-Édouard Levillain.-De conductor de embajadores a privado: Fernando de Valenzuela y las redes diplomáticas en la corte de Mariana de Austria, Antonio Álvarez-Ossorio Alvariño.-Viena-Madrid-Hungría: la mediación de los embajadores en las concesiones de la Orden del Toisón en el siglo XVII , Tibor Martí.-La embajada española del conde de Lobkowicz: de enviado extraordinario a embajador ordinario en la corte de Madrid (1689-1691), Michaela Buriánková.-El embajador de Luis XIV en la corte de Madrid, ¿un ideal del servicio al rey?, Guillaume Hanotin.-Los representantes de la nación francesa en Madrid: diplomacia, comercio y corporaciones nacionales (1709-1721), Carlos Infantes Buil.-II. NEGOCIANDO LA SUCESIÓN, BUSCANDO EL EQUILIBRIO.-Tres perfiles políticos, tres realidades sociales, Lucien Bély.-Un diplomático comprometido y controvertido: Louis-Toussaint de Brancas-Céreste, embajador francés en España (1713 y 1714), según la correspondencia entre Luis XIV y Felipe V, José Manuel de Bernardo Ares.-Embajadores y damas de la corte. La construcción de una red de poder internacional entre Madrid, París y Turín en la transición de finales del Seiscientos, Elena Riva.-El cardenal Francesco Acquaviva d’Aragona, ministro de Felipe V en Roma, Virginia León Sanz.-Un nuevo peso en la balanza: la incorporación de Rusia a la negociación del sistema del equilibrio europeo (1717-1721), Núria Sallés Vilaseca.-Los embajadores de la reina. Isabel de Farnesio y el gobierno de las Dos Sicilias, Pablo Vázquez Gestal.-III. SOBERANOS Y CORPORACIONES. LA DIPLOMACIA PROVINCIAL.-Representación y negociación. Agencias y embajadores provinciales de los parlamentos vascos en el Madrid del Seiscientos, Alberto Angulo Morales.-El reconocimiento político de una nueva institución: los representantes del Brazo Militar de Cataluña en la corte (1660-1714), Eduard Martí-Fraga.-Defender el Stato, promocionar al patriciado. La diplomacia provincial lombarda en las cortes de los Habsburgo durante la guerra de Sucesión (1706-1714), Roberto Quirós Rosado.-IV. RETÓRICA VISUAL Y CULTURA ESCRITA. LA AUTORREPRESENTACIÓN DEL EMBAJADOR BARROCO.-La diplomacia imaginada. Pinturas de negociadores en el siglo XVII, Diana Carrió-Invernizzi.-Retórica visual y persuasión política. La representación del embajador barroco: el caso del obispo Luis Crespí y Borja, Álvaro Pascual Chenel.-La aguda pluma del embajador. Ingenio y cultura política en la correspondencia entre los ministros españoles en Londres y La Haya (1675-1699), Cristina Bravo Lozano.-«Peregrino en su patria, va a peregrinar a las extrañas». La memoria del yo en la embajada del conde de Assumar ante el archiduque Carlos (1705-1713), David Martín Marcos.-Relación de autores. 

(more information here) 

BOOK: Agatha VERDEBOUT, Rewriting Histories of the Use of Force The Narrative of ‘Indifference' [Cambridge Studies in International and Comparative Law; 160] (Cambridge: CUP, 2021), ISBN 9781108937375

 

(image source: CUP)

On the book:

It is commonly taught that the prohibition of the use of force is an achievement of the twentieth century and that beforehand States were free to resort to the arms as they pleased. International law, the story goes, was 'indifferent' to the use of force. 'Reality' as it stems from historical sources, however, appears much more complex. Using tools of history, sociology, anthropology and social psychology, this monograph offers new insights into the history of the prohibition of the use of force in international law. Conducting in-depth analysis of nineteenth century doctrine and State practice, it paves the way for an alternative narrative on the prohibition of force, and seeks to understand the origins of international law's traditional account. In so doing, it also provides a more general reflection on how the discipline writes, rewrites and chooses to remember its own history.

On the author:

Agatha Verdebout holds a PhD in Public International Law from the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB). Her main research interests lie in critical histories of international law and the use of force. She is the recipient of several prizes, awards and research grants, notably the 2017 Henri Rolin Prize.

(read more here)

ARTICLE: Thomas DAHMS, "Diligent Bureaucrats and the Expulsion of Jews from West Prussia, 1772–1786" (German History XXXIX (2021), No. 3 (Sep), 335-357 (OPEN ACCESS)

 

(image source: Wikimedia Commons)

Abstract:

Historiography has repeatedly highlighted the mitigating influence of the Prussian administration on Frederick the Great’s oppressive policies toward the Jews. Scholars have argued that officials frequently opposed the king’s discriminatory legislation and intentionally delayed its implementation. These actions, they claimed, were influenced by the Enlightenment humanism of the Prussian administrators and their training in natural law theories and mercantilist economics, both taught at German universities at the time. Such descriptions are central in the influential narrative of late eighteenth-century Prussia as a remarkably tolerant state that developed relatively lenient policies towards the Jews. This article challenges the traditional portrayal of the Prussian administration by examining the actions of three officials involved in the expulsion of several thousand Jews from the province of West Prussia between 1772 and 1786. It argues that the remarkably positive assessment of the Prussian bureaucrats and their role in the Jewish policies of the time needs significant revision. First, previous historiography has overstated the extent to which Prussian officials objected to the king’s discriminatory policies. Secondly, occasional instances of resistance from within the administration were mainly motivated by political, economic and demographic objectives or even careerist pursuits that had little to do with the Jewish communities. Lastly, the Prussian administrators did not merely adhere to economic principles or even to ideals of tolerance and humanity. To a significant extent, their actions were also influenced by anti-Jewish sentiment.

Read more here (DOI 10.1093/gerhis/ghab027). 

ELECTIONS: Candidacies expected by 22 OCT

The current Steering Committee of the Interest Group History of International Law needs to be renewed. ESIL Members with an interest in history are invited to submit their candidacies by the end of the current week with the ESIL Secretariat (ESIL.Secretariat at eui dot eu). The ESIL membership will subsequently elect a new Steering Committee.

Since its inception in September 2014 , the ESIL IGHIL has organised multiple Interest Group Events at the ESIL Research Fora and Conferences. The blog posts news and publications on a nearly daily basis. This unique channel of communication reaches hundreds of ESIL members, and probably has not yet reached its full potential. Service on the IGHIL’s Steering Committee is a unique opportunity in the career of early career researchers as well as established academics.

JOURNAL: Jus Gentium. Journal of International Legal History VI (2021), No. 2 (Jul)

 

(image source: Lawbookexchange)

Vol. 6, No. 2 | July 2021

ARTICLES
Theory of the History of International Law: Methodology, Grounds, and Developments
Olga Butkevych

The English Translators and Publishers of Grotius on War and Peace: 1654–1928
W. E. Butler

China and the Unequal Treaties: Localization, Variation, and Response
Zenghua Zhuo

NOTES AND COMMENTS
Ruminations on DNA and the History of International Law
W. E. Butler

Georg von Gretschaninow (1892–1973): Émigré Jurist Stateless at Berlin and Heidelberg. A Concise Bio-Bibliography
P. Macalister-Smith

DOCUMENTS AND OTHER EVIDENCE OF STATE PRACTICE
Royal Naval Instructions Implementing the 1817 Anglo-Spanish Treaty on Illicit Trafficking of Slaves
W. E. Butler

A Brief Calendar of State Practice for Shandong: 1897–1914. Part Four (1914): Into World War
P. Macalister-Smith
J. Schweitzke

FROM THE LITERATURE

(source: lawbookexchange)

BOOK REVIEW: Romain BERTRAND, Dipesh CHAKRABARTY, Provincialiser l'Europe. La pensée postcoloniale et la différence historique (transl. O. RUCHET & N. VIEILLESCAZES (Paris: ED. Amsterdam, 2009 [2000], 381 p.) (Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales LXXV (2021), N° 3-4, 821-826

 

(image source: Cambridge Core)

First paragraph:

Aussi bien à l’occasion de sa parution en anglais que lors de sa traduction en français, Provincialiser l’Europe a souvent été considéré comme un manifeste anti-européocentriste, sinon même comme un brûlot relativiste. Son titre claquait comme une injonction – à mi-chemin de la nécessité théorique et de l’impératif moral. Au sein de l’espace de réception qui se dessina autour d’une certaine idée du livre, réduit à son intitulé, le propos de l’auteur fut tenu pour l’expression d’un programme fort des études postcoloniales – ce qu’il était, mais selon des voies qui déjouaient ses appropriations les plus radicales. Il convient ainsi, pour rendre pleinement justice au propos de Dipesh Chakrabarty, non seulement de suivre pas à pas son argument, mais aussi de rattacher chaque temps fort théorique de son texte aux éléments les plus déterminants de sa trajectoire intellectuelle.

(read more on Cambridge Core: DOI  10.1017/ahss.2021.21)

BOOK: Michael REYNOLDS, Instruments of Peacemaking 1870-1914 (London: Bloomsbury, 2021), 360 p. ISBN 9781509938308, 72 GBP

  

(image source: Bloomsbury)

Book abstract:

This book focuses on Anglo-American disputes arising out of the civil war in the United States and British interests in the American continent: the Geneva Arbitration, the Venezuela-Guiana Arbitration and the Bhering Sea Arbitration. It draws on those cases as model proceedings which laid the foundations and inspiration for a promotion of international law through the Hague Conferences and by the work of English and American jurists. It considers the encouragement these cases gave to the promotion of public international law and how that contributed to the resolution of inter-state disputes.

On the author:

Michael Reynolds is Visiting Senior Research Fellow in the Department of International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK. 

(more information with the publisher) 

(source: ESCLH Blog)

BOOK: Jens STEFFEK, International Organization as Technocratic Utopia [Transformations in Governance, ed. Liesbeth HOOGHE & Gary MARKS] (Oxford: OUP, 2021), 256 p. ISBN 9780192845573, 75 GBP

 

(image source: OUP)

Book abstract:

As climate change and a pandemic pose enormous challenges to humankind, the concept of expert governance gains new traction. This book revisits the idea that scientists, bureaucrats, and lawyers, rather than politicians or diplomats, should manage international relations. It shows that this technocratic approach has been a persistent theme in writings about international relations, both academic and policy-oriented, since the 19th century. The technocratic tradition of international thought unfolded in four phases, which were closely related to domestic processes of modernization and rationalization. The pioneering phase lasted from the Congress of Vienna to the First World War. In these years, philosophers, law scholars, and early social scientists began to combine internationalism and ideals of expert governance. Between the two world wars, a utopian period followed that was marked by visions of technocratic international organizations that would have overcome the principle of territoriality. In the third phase, from the 1940s to the 1960s, technocracy became the dominant paradigm of international institution-building. That paradigm began to disintegrate from the 1970s onwards, but important elements remain until the present day. The specific promise of technocratic internationalism is its ability to transform violent and unpredictable international politics into orderly and competent public administration. Such ideas also had political clout. This book shows how they left their mark on the League of Nations, the functional branches of the United Nations system and the European integration project. Transformations in Governance is a major academic book series from Oxford University Press. It is designed to accommodate the impressive growth of research in comparative politics, international relations, public policy, federalism, and environmental and urban studies concerned with the dispersion of authority from central states to supranational institutions, subnational governments, and public-private networks. It brings together work that advances our understanding of the organization, causes, and consequences of multilevel and complex governance. The series is selective, containing annually a small number of books of exceptionally high quality by leading and emerging scholars.

On the author:

Jens Steffek is Professor of Transnational Governance at the Technical University of Darmstadt. His research interests include international organizations, international history and international political theory. He is the author of Embedded Liberalism and Its Critics: Justifying Global Governance in the American Century (Palgrave, 2006) and has published articles in numerous scholarly journals. 

(source: OUP) 

ROUNDTABLE: The Historical Turn in International Economic Law - Ghent/Brussels, 12.10.2021 – 12h30-14h (on Zoom)

 

(Source: Rolin-Jaequemyns International Law Institute Ghent)

The historical turn in international has been followed by various subdisciplinary turns to, for example, the history of human rights law, international humanitarian law and international criminal law. Nevertheless, the origins and history of international economic law has received less attention from both international economic lawyers and international legal historians. This roundtable will reflect on the current state of the art, its gaps and potential avenues for future research, in particular with respect to interdisciplinarity, periodization, method, the role of non-state actors and eurocentrism.

Convenors:

Drs. Filip Batselé (Ghent University – Université Libre de Bruxelles, Ghent Legal History Institute – Centre de droit international)

Dr. Gustavo Prieto (Ghent University, Human Rights Center - Human Rights in Context)

Drs. Florenz Volkaert (Ghent University, Ghent Legal History Institute)

Introduction by:

Prof. Dr. Em. Ernst-Ulrich Petersmann (European University Institute): ‘Reflections on the history of international economic law’

Panelists:

Dr. Mona Pinchis-Paulsen (London School of Economics)

Dr. Sabine Pitteloud (Université de Genève)

Dr. Raphaël Lima Sakr (University of Sheffield)

Moderated by Dr. Gustavo Prieto

Jointly hosted by the Ghent Legal History Institute, the Ghent Rolin-Jacquemyns Institute and Contextual Research in Law (Free University of Brussels), in collaboration with the ESIL Interest Groups International Economic Law and History of International Law.

12.10.2021 – 12h30-14h (Zoom-link to register).