ADVANCE ARTICLE: Benjamin G. MARTIN, "The Birth of the Cultural Treaty in Europe's Age of Crisis" (Contemporary European History)

 

(image source: Cambridge Core)

Abstract:

Bilateral treaties are an age-old tool of diplomacy, but before the First World War they were only rarely applied to the world of intellectual and cultural relations. This article explores the process by which diplomatic agreements on intellectual and cultural exchange came instead to be a common feature of interwar European international relations by contrasting two types of agreements identified by period observers: ‘intellectual’ accords, typified by the agreements France signed in the 1920s, and ‘cultural’ treaties, advanced by fascist Italy in the 1930s. Comparing France and Italy's use of such agreements in Central-Eastern Europe reveals that Italy's fascist regime responded to the crises and opportunities of the interwar period by developing a distinctive model of ‘cultural treaty’ that applied state power to international cultural exchange, and mobilised the idea of ‘culture’ itself, in a new and influential manner.

Read more here: DOI 10.1017/S0960777321000023.

BOOK: Alexander ORAKHELASHVILI, International Law and International Politics. Foundations of Interdisciplinary Analysis [Principles of international law series] (Cheltenham: E. Elgar, 2020), ISBN 978 1 83910 643 9

 

(image source: Elgar)

Book abstract:

This illuminating monograph examines analytical and practical aspects of the relationship between international law and international politics, providing a comprehensive analysis of the foundations on which both the international legal system and international politics rest.With an interdisciplinary perspective, Alexander Orakhelashvili compares and contrasts the methods of international legal reasoning with international relations as a discipline, focusing on timeless and central issues that connect the past, present and future. The book examines, through the use of both disciplines’ methodology, some more specific areas such as public authority, global space, and peace, with the overall outcome that political contempt towards the international legal system could have unexpected and costly adverse political consequences.Examining a broad range of theories and literature, International Law and International Politics will be an invigorating read for academics, students and practitioners of international law, international relations, politics, and diplomacy. 

Read more here.

ARTICLE: Jullia GAFFIELD, "The Racialization of International Law after the Haitian Revolution: The Holy See and National Sovereignty" (American Historical Review CXXV (2020), No. 3, 841-868)

(image: Toussaint Louverture; source: Wikimedia Commons)

Abstract:

The Haitian state shaped international definitions of sovereignty and national legitimacy after the Declaration of Independence in 1804. Haiti’s nineteenth century was not a period of isolation and decline; its first six decades were globally connected because the country’s leaders challenged their postcolonial inequality with diplomacy and state formation. This strategy aimed to establish Haiti’s membership in the “family of nations,” a central metaphor in European and American diplomatic, legal, and religious decision-making. In doing so, the Haitian state forced the Atlantic powers to redefine the boundaries of international relations. Haiti’s decades-long negotiations with the Catholic Church were tied to the racialization of the global hierarchy. After its Declaration of Independence, the Haitian state began clearing a theoretical path toward recognized sovereignty based on the dominant narrative that a society must be considered “civilized” on the world stage. But, as it cultivated internal policies and practices that rejected the dominant racist assumptions, these discriminatory ideologies became increasingly more explicit in international law. 

(read more with OUP Journals: DOI 10.1093/ahr/rhz1226)

ESIL RESEARCH FORUM CATANIA: Registration mandatory (by 8 APRIL 2021)

(image source: Wikimedia Commons)

The ESIL IGHIL organizes a pre-conference event at the ESIL Research Forum in Catania (see program here).

The organising committee and the ESIL Board request all participants (presenters, but also the audience) to register by 8 April:  http://www.2021esilcatania.unict.it/register. 

JOB OFFER: 3 PhD Students (m/f/d) (Dr. Inge VAN HULLE, Legal Connectivities and Colonial Cultures in Africa; Frankfurt: MPILHLT, DEADLINE 1 MAY 2021)

(image source: MPI for Legal History and Legal Theory)
 

Project description:

The legal history of colonialism has for a long time been embedded in the paradigm of the nation state, where the focus lies on investigating the history of individual colonies within a single colonial or national legal tradition. State-centrism in colonial legal history means that the colonies and metropole are often separated from developments that took place on a regional or international level. However, insights from global history, histoire croisée and entangled history, have illustrated the impact on historical developments of the movement and the spatial interconnectedness of people, goods and ideas. This project starts from the premise that the same may be said for the movement of legal concepts and ideas in and about Africa during the colonial period of the late nineteenth- and twentieth centuries. The project maps the connectivities of legal developments in colonial Africa across the local, regional and international level by identifying normative exchanges, for example, between international treaty- and diplomatic negotiations, lobby groups, colonial governments and local actors. Here, the actions of and networks between historical actors who often held plural and conflicting allegiances take centre-stage.

Duties and responsibilities:

 Your key responsibility is to develop and complete a doctoral dissertation within the confines of the research group in one of the three themes described above. Doctoral students are expected to publish and disseminate their research findings in close co-operation with the other members of the research group.

Your profile:

A university degree in law, humanities or social sciences that has been completed with above-average success is required. You have an excellent command of English, both spoken and written and are proficient in either French or German. Knowledge of African languages is not a requirement but will be considered as an asset. Your curriculum vitae shows the potential to conduct research at an internationally high level. You work meticulously and are able to handle deadlines. You work independently and have a strong interest in interdisciplinary, archival and comparative work. You have the ability to play an active collaborative role in the research group.

Job: 

The PhD positions (39 hours per week) are paid the equivalent of 65% of the German Civil Service Collective Agreement (TVöD Bund), level E13, and are primarily intended to enable the preparation of a doctoral thesis. The positions are fixed-term appointments for three years; in exceptional cases, a position can be extended for one additional year. The Max Planck Society is committed to increasing the number of individuals with disabilities in its workforce and therefore encourages applications from such individuals. Furthermore, the Max Planck Society seeks to increase the number of women in those areas where they are underrepresented and therefore explicitly encourages women to apply. The Max Planck Society strives for gender equality and diversity. We welcome applications from all backgrounds.

 Application process:

 Your application must be submitted online via the link below by the closing date of May 1, 2021. Please forward your application documents to your indicated reviewers. If you are shortlisted, we will request a review. If your application is convincing, we will invite you to a selection interview.

The application should be in English or German and should contain the following documents:

• Names and addresses (by post and electronically) of three researchers who have agreed to issue you with a letter of reference
• Detailed CV containing a list of any publications you might have
• Copies of your school leaver’s certificate and degree certificate
• Preliminary research project (up to five pages) fitting within one of the three themes; Cover letter naming your research project and explaining to what extent your profile meets the selection criteria
• Written sample of approx. 20 printed pages (e.g. master thesis sample, journal articles, book chapters, etc.)

Contact:

Informal enquiries may be directed to Dr. I. Van Hulle (vanhulle@rg.mpg.de). For questions as to the terms and conditions of employment please contact Ms. Anna Heym (jobs@rg.mpg.de).

Link to application here. 

BOOK: Torben SPAAK & Patricia MINDUS (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Legal Positivism [Cambridge Companions to Law] (Cambridge: CUP, 2021), ISBN 9781108447010

 

(source: Cambridge Core)

Book abstract:

Legal positivism is one of the fundamental theories of jurisprudence studied in law and related fields around the world. This volume addresses how legal positivism is perceived and makes the case for why it is relevant for contemporary legal theory. The Cambridge Companion to Legal Positivism offers thirty-three chapters from leading scholars that provide a comprehensive commentary on the fundamental ideas of legal positivism, its history and major theorists, its connection to normativity and values, its current development and influence, as well as on the criticisms moved against it.

(more information on Cambridge Core) 

BOOK: Amanda WILCOX, The Italian Empire and the Great War (Oxford: OUP, 2021), 288 p. ISBN 9780198822943, € 38,14

 

(image source: Blackwells)

Book abstract:

The Italian Empire and the Great War brings an imperial and colonial perspective to the Italian experience of the First World War. Italy's decision for war in 1915 is contextualised in light of Italian imperial ambitions from the late nineteenth century onwards, and its conquest of Libya in 1911-12. The Italian empire was conceived both in conventional terms as a system of settlement or exploitation colonies under Italian sovereignty, and as an informal global empire of emigrants; both were mobilised in support of the war in 1915-18. The war was designed to bring about 'a greater Italy' both literally and metaphorically. In pursuit of global status, Italy endeavoured to fight a global war, sending troops to the Balkans, Russia, and the Middle East, though with limited results. Italy's newest colony, Libya, was also a theatre of the Italian war effort, as the anticolonial resistance there linked up with the Ottoman Empire, Germany, and Austria to undermine Italian rule. Italian race theories underpinned this expansionism: Vanda Wilcox examines how Italian constructions of whiteness and racial superiority informed a colonial approach to military occupation in Europe as well as the conduct of its campaigns in Africa. After the war, Italy's fate at the Peace Conference is examined in an imperial framework to show that the 'mutilated victory' was an imperial as well as a national sentiment. Events in Paris are analysed alongside the military occupations in the Balkans and Asia Minor as well as the efforts to resolve the conflicts in Libya, to assess the rhetoric and reality of Italian imperialism.

(source: Blackwells)