JOURNAL: Jus Gentium: Journal of International Legal History III (2018), No. 2

(image source: ILReports)

• Articles
• S. Harris, Arbitration at Vienna: Recasting the History of International Dispute Resolution
• V.I. Ivanenko, The Rising Generation of International Lawyers at St. Petersburg University: Zaremba and Spasovich
• Mark W. Podvia, The Baltimore Incident and American Naval Expansion
• O.O. Merezhko, The 1917 Russian Revolution and International Law
• K.O. Savchuk & I.M. Protsenko, The Development of the Science of International Law at the Koretsky Institute of State and Law
• J. Anderson, Currency Control, Exchange Contracts, and War: Boissevain v. Weil
• Isaac Schaphorst, Brown v. United States and Confiscation of Enemy Property
• Notes and Comments
• V.I. Ivanenko, Kronid Malyshev and the Renaissance of Private International Law
• W.E. Butler, On Teaching the History of International Law
• I.O. Kresina & O.V. Kresin, The People as a Subject of International Law
• Documents and Other Evidence of State Practice
• P. Macalister-Smith & J. Schwietzke, Brief Calendar of International Practice for Spain and Portugal, 1641 to 1818

This journal can be accessed through HeinOnline.

More information with the Lawbook Exchange.

(source: International Law Reporter)

BLOG: Alexander MURPHY on William Penn's Peace Plan at 325 (OUPBlog, 21 DEC 2018)

(image source: OUP)

First paragraph:

2018 marks the 325th anniversary of the publication of William Penn’s Essay towards the Present and Future Peace of Europe, which proposed, among other things, the establishment of a European Parliament. Best remembered as the founder of Pennsylvania, Penn spent most of his life in England and remained deeply concerned about the fate of religious and political liberty across Europe. He proposed his “European Diet, Parliament, or Estates” as a way of promoting peaceful coexistence and breaking out of the cycle of nearly constant European war. A fresh look at Penn’s Essay is a task well worth undertaking, as refugee crises, fears of autocracy in Hungary and Poland, and the future of Brexit continue to roil European waters.

Read more here.

REVIEW ARTICLE: John A. THOMPSON, "American Power and Interwar Internationalism" (The Historical Journal LXI (2018), No. 4, 1137-1148)

(image source: Cambridge Core)

Extract:

Two central features of global history over the past century have been the pre-eminent power of the United States in world politics and the growth of international organizations. The relationship between these phenomena has been variously interpreted, in ways that reflect theoretical and methodological commitments as well as political perspectives. The Realist school, for whom power relationships are always determinative, have followed Carl Schmitt and E. H. Carr in seeing international institutions, and the norms and laws they uphold, as instruments through which dominant powers seek legitimacy as well as influence. By contrast, liberal theorists have viewed the pursuit of a rule-governed world order, and the development of the idea of a ‘world community’, as a more autonomous and broadly based enterprise, one spurred by increased interdependence and greater concern with matters of common interest to all nations – not least that of avoiding the devastating effects of great power warfare in the modern era. As is usually the case with such analytically sharp distinctions, neither of these positions conveys the whole truth

Read more here.

JOURNAL: Grotiana XXXIX (2018), Issue 1 (December)

(image source: Brill)

An Unpublished Letter from Herbert of Cherbury to Grotius on the Expeditio in Ream Insulam: Commentary, Text, and Translation (Felix Waldmann)
Abstract:

The following article presents the text and translation of an unpublished letter to Grotius from Edward Herbert (1582?–1648), Lord Cherbury. The letter pertains to Cherbury’s The expedition to the Isle of Rhé or Expeditio in Ream Insulam – his manuscript account of the duke of Buckingham’s abortive siege of the Isle of Ré in July–October 1627.

Grotius, Dio Chrysostom and the ‘Invention’ of Customary ius gentium (Francesca Iurlarlo)
Abstract:

This article tackles the issue of whether and how Hugo Grotius conceives of custom as a formal source of the law of nations. The main claim of it is that not only custom plays a fundamental role in Grotius’s thought, but that his reflections mark a fundamental turning point for the history of customary international law. A crucial role in this process of re-conceptualization is played by Grotius’s reading of Dio Chrysostom, whose oration On custom provides him with an integrated account of custom as a ‘normative practice’ based on rhetorical judgment (as opposed to the Scholastic interpretation of custom as reiteration of voluntary acts). Consequently, I argue that Dio Chrysostom’s text helps Grotius to transpose the question of the normative legitimacy of custom from a moral to an interpretative level. To conclude, I will show that Grotius adopts two different rhetorical strategies to prove the existence of customary norms of ius gentium.

 States and Patrimonial Kingdoms: Hugo Grotius’s Account of Sovereign Entities in The Rights of War and Peace (Emile Simpson)
Abstract:

In this article I set out Hugo Grotius’s account of sovereign entities in the De Iure Belli ac Pacis (The Rights of War and Peace, 1625). In so doing, I seek to challenge a claim not uncommonly encountered in the recent historiography of the work, namely, that Grotius had no account of the state therein. In challenging that claim, I will make a further claim that while Grotius did have an account of the state, it was only one of two forms of sovereign entity, the other being the patrimonial kingdom. While this last claim is occasionally encountered in terms of a distinction between forms of government, I go further, on the basis that the distinction identifies a fundamental conceptual difference between free and unfree nations, which speaks not only to the form of government, but to the nature of the sovereign entity itself. Furthermore, it is my contention that through the patrimonial kingdom, Grotius was able to account for empire.

 A Reply to Grotius’s Critics. On Constitutional Law (Gustaaf van Nifterik)
Abstract:

It is not always easy to interpret Grotius’s constitutional theory that lies hidden within his book on the law of war and peace. After a very concise discussion of this constitutional framework, this study turns to various interpretations and conclusions by contemporary scholars that sit awkwardly within the theory. The interpretations of Richard Tuck, Peter Borschberg, Knud Haakonson, Frank Grunert, Deborah Baumgold, Marco Barducci, Daniel Lee and Gustaaf van Nifterik are discussed critically. 

An Introduction to the Smaller Bodies of Water in Hugo Grotius’s Legal Theory (Laurelin Middelkoop)
Abstract:

Around the same time as his writing of De iure belli ac pacis, Hugo Grotius wrote a short tract: Introduction to the jurisprudence of Holland. He was the first to offer a systematic account of the substantive law of Holland, with a specific focus on rights over laws. I propose that by drawing a comparison between the Introduction and his other major law treatises, the key elements and differences of his argument in Mare liberum become clearer. Secondly, it shows a different side of Grotius as a legal theorist, one concerned with smaller legal issues surrounding property relations in Holland, where potential conflicts stemming from water damage are particularly common and likely. By focusing on how Grotius handles categories of smaller bodies of water, in Introduction but also in ibp and De iure praedae, his understanding of what makes some water susceptible to ownership is drawn out.

 Book reviews:

• The Historical Foundations of Grotius’ Analysis of Delict [Legal History Library 24], written by Joe Sampson (Eltjo Schrage)
• Scriptural Authority and Biblical Criticism in the Dutch Golden Age: God’s Word Questioned, edited by Dirk van Miert, Henk J. M. Nellen, Piet Steenbakkers, and Jetze Touber (Nicholas Hardy)
• Hugo Grotius and the Modern Theology of Freedom: Transcending Natural Rights, written by Jeremy Seth Geddert (Andrew Blom)
• Hugo Grotius and the Century of Revolution 1613–1718: Transnational Reception in English Political Thought, written by Marco Barducci (Marco Barducci)
• Criticism and Confession. The Bible in the Seventeenth Century Republic of Letters, written by Nicholas Hardy (Sarah Mortimer)
• Necessity in International Law, written by Jens David Ohlin & Larry May (Ioannis D. Evrigenis)

Bibliography (Rens Steenhard)

More information with Brill.

(source: ESCLH Blog)

CALL FOR PAPERS: ESCLH - Second Postgraduate Conference in Comparative Legal History, 27-29 June 2019 (DEADLINE: 15 January 2019)

We are pleased to announce a Call for Papers for the 2^nd ESCLH Postgraduate Conference: 

Second Postgraduate Conference in Comparative Legal History
27–29 June 2019, Augsburg University, Germany
Call for Papers

The European Society for Comparative Legal History (ESCLH) is pleased to announce its Second Postgraduate Conference. The ESCLH invites PhD-students (beyond their first year) and post-doctoral-researchers who work in the field of comparative legal history to participate in the conference. The conference will be held from 27 to 29 June 2019 at Augsburg University, Germany.

The ESCHL wants to overcome the narrow nationalism and geographical segregation of legal history in contemporary European scholarship and professional organisations. The society, thus, aims to promote comparative legal history, the explicit comparison of legal ideas and institutions in two or more legal traditions.

The Second Postgraduate Conference of the ESCLH will give advanced PhD-students and post-doctoral-researchers the opportunity to present their research in the field of comparative legal history to a panel of six leading experts. Furthermore, the conference will give all participants the opportunity to build academic networks. The experts on the panel cover a broad range of subjects: Ulrike Babusiaux (Zürich), Mia Korpiola (Turku), Annamaria Monti (Milano), Wim Decock (Leuven), Matthew Dyson (Oxford), and Aniceto Masferrer (Valencia).

The ESCLH invites advanced doctoral candidates and post-doctoral researchers to submit abstracts for presentation. The abstract should be of no more than 300 words and give the title of your research project, your field of research, and your personal data (full name, email address, affiliated university, CV) to:

phillip.hellwege@jura.uni-augsburg.de

The conference language is English and abstracts must be submitted in English. The closing date for receipt of abstracts is 15 January 2019. 12 applicants will be selected and invited to participate in the conference. Successful applicants will be informed by 15 February 2019.

Participants are expected to cover their own travel expenses. Accommodation and catering will be provided without charge.

(source: ESCLH Blog)

BLOGPOST: Are We Living in the “Eastphalian” Moment? South and East Asian Perspectives on International Law (Raffaela KUNZ - Sebastian SPITRA, Völkerrechtsblog)

(image source: Voelkerrechtsblog)

First paragraph:

Diverging views and perspectives on international law are unavoidable. The global span of this body of law and the different geographical, cultural, religious and educational backgrounds of those who work with it contribute importantly to the understanding of its normative frameworks. Multiperspectivism and situatedness thus somewhat seem to be inherent to the DNA of international law (see e.g. here; see also this recent book). The fact that scholars from different countries and continents see and assess differently violations of international law is telling of that. And this pluralism of perspectives is not only unavoidable, it is in fact also desirable and represents the plurality of the world as it exists. Nonetheless, the question arises whether and how different perspectives on international law can be reconciled with international law’s claim to universality and the ideal of intersubjective comprehensibility, at the heart of which arguably lies the very question of the scientific value of international legal scholarship. In times of growing nationalism and populism, when also international law and international legal scholarship increasingly come under pressure, this seems even more pressing (see on this recently here).

Reader further here.

PRIZE: 2019 Toynbee Prize to Prof. Lauren Benton (Vanderbilt University)

(image source: Toynbee Prize Foundation)

We have the following announcement from the Toynbee Prize Foundation:

Lauren Benton has been named winner of the 2019 Toynbee Prize. Benton is Nelson O. Tyrone, Jr. Professor of History and Professor of Law at Vanderbilt University.
Benton was selected as winner of the Prize by the Toynbee Prize Foundation’s Board of Trustees. Both Dominic Sachsenmaier, President of the Foundation and Chair Professor of Modern China at the University of Göttingen, and Darrin McMahon, Foundation Vice-President and Mary Brinsmead Wheelock Professor of History at Dartmouth College, applauded the choice of Benton. “Lauren Benton has made enormous contributions to the global historical study of empires and international legal systems,” said Sachsenmaier. “We are delighted to award her the 2019 Toynbee Prize for the excellence and broad range of her global historical scholarship.”
The Trustees agreed. Jennifer Pitts, Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, commented:
Lauren Benton has been an indispensable voice in global history, imperial history, and the history of international law, especially in the lively and ongoing interdisciplinary debate about the formation of the global legal order. She has broken important new ground with each of her books, as well as many articles on subjects from legal pluralism to piracy to the abolition of the slave trade. She has made a uniquely powerful case that the history of international law must take into account not simply the arguments of prominent legal theorists but also the actions and arguments of a host of actors from all over the world, what she has called “vernacular forms of political theory.” Her lively authorial voice, incisive arguments and conceptual innovations, engaging narratives, and remarkable archival work have made her work equally valuable to students and specialists alike.
David Armitage, Lloyd C. Blankfein Professor of History at Harvard University wrote:
Lauren Benton has done more than any other scholar in recent generations to reintegrate global history with legal history. With archival tenacity and broad conceptual sweep, she has used fine-grained microhistory in the service of world-spanning arguments about the tentative distribution of imperial power, the informal elaboration of international law, and the paradoxes of sovereignty in a world unevenly colonized and incompletely decolonized. Her achievements, alone and in collaboration with a wide range of younger scholars, make her an apt and inspirational recipient of the Toynbee Prize.
Jeremy Adelman, Henry Charles Lea Professor of History and Director of the Global History Lab at Princeton University enthused:
Lauren Benton has opened new frontiers for global history. She has challenged us all to rethink how we think about empires by spotlighting the spaces in between, the anomalies, and the fringes as locations of improvisation and development.  She has upended the traditional understandings of law and outlawry in the making of practices of modern sovereignty.  And the breadth of her research is simply astonishing.
Jie-Hyun Lim, Professor of Transnational History and Director of the Critical Global Studies Initiative at Sogang University, Seoul, added that “[b]y investigating “jurisdictional politics,” Lauren Benton has contributed to our understanding of the global legal regime as the palimpsest of historical negotiations between centers and peripheries.”
Benton is the author of four books and editor of three. She is perhaps best known for her three seminal works of comparative legal history: Law and Colonial Cultures: Legal Regimes in World History, 1400–1900 (Cambridge UP, 2002), which was awarded the J. Willard Hurst Prize and the World History Association Book Prize; A Search for Sovereignty: Law and Geography in European Empires, 1400–1900 (Cambridge UP, 2010); and, most recently, Rage for Order: The British Empire and the Origins of International Law, 1800–1850 (Harvard UP, 2016), co-written with Professor Lisa Ford. In his review of Law and Colonial Cultures, the late Adam McKeown, former professor of history at Columbia University, hailed the book as “a landmark in the creation of a more complex modern global cultural history built on more than just expansion and resistance, but on a shifting negotiation of power, culture, difference, homogenization, identity, and rights.” [1] Her other books include Invisible Factories: The Informal Economy and Industrial Development in Spain (State University of New York Press, 1990); with Bain Attwood and Adam Clulow, Protection and Empire: A Global History (Cambridge UP, 2017); with Richard Ross, Legal Pluralism and Empires, 1500-1850 (New York UP, 2013); and, with Alejandro Portes and Manuel Castells, The Informal Economy: Studies in Advanced and Less Developed Countries (1989). Benton received her A.B. with a concentration in economics from Harvard University in 1978 and a Ph.D. in anthropology and history from Johns Hopkins University in 1987. Prior to her position at Vanderbilt, she was Julius Silver Professor of History and Affiliated Professor of Law at New York University. She has also taught at Rutgers University, New Jersey Institute of Technology, the University of Washington, Bothell, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The Toynbee Prize is awarded biennially “for work that makes a significant contribution to the study of global history.” In winning the Prize, Benton joins a distinguished roster of Toynbee Prize recipients, including Natalie Zemon Davis, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Christopher Bayly and, most recently, Jürgen Osterhammel.
Benton will formally accept the Prize and deliver the Toynbee Prize Lecture at the Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association in Chicago, Illinois, in early January 2019. Details of the lecture to follow.

(source: Toynbee Prize Foundation)