BOOK REVIEW: Charles-Edouard LEVILLAIN reviews Nicolas DROCOURT & Eric SCHNAKENBOURG (dir.), Thémis en diplomatie. Droit et arguments juridiques dans les relations internationales [Histoire] (Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2016)

(image source: JMH)

First paragraph:

International law law was long in the making. By exploring the rich dialectical relationship between law and diplomacy, this volume invites readers to rethink the art of negotiation as an empirical process that only very gradually assumed a formal coherence and a theoretical substance. The editors have assembled a team of scholars working on different periods -from the late Roman antiquity to the Enlightenment- and different territories. While the volume's primary focus is on European history, some chapters discuss Ottoman or early American history. The volume alternates between global and local history.

Read the rest of the review here.

CALL FOR PAPERS: Colonial Institutions and the Uses of Law in Early Modern South Asia – Radboud Universiteit Indian Ocean World in the 18th Century Workshop Series (DEADLINE: 21 October 2018)

(Source: Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen)

We learned of a call for papers for a workshop on law in relation to 17^th and 18^th century colonial institutions. Here the call:

28 January 2019, Radboud University Nijmegen (Netherlands)

Organized by: Dries Lyna, Luc Bulten (both Radboud University Nijmegen) and Leonard Hodges (King’s College London)

In partnership with Alicia Schrikker (Leiden University) & International Institute for Asian Studies

Discussant: Nandini Chatterjee (University of Exeter)

Law has long been recognised as one of the most important fields for understanding the creation and maintenance of the colonial state in South Asia. Historians have shown how both criminal and civil law were a means for subjugating and governing colonised populations, as legal codes and property regimes served to maintain the social order and legitimise the extractive capacity of the colonial state. Recent research shifted away from this top-down perspective, and close attention to the actions of indigenous litigants has revealed how local populations used colonial legal systems to serve their own interests, with a great deal of present-day work focusing on legal pluralism. Yet the vast majority of this literature has addressed the question of law and colonialism in South Asia through the lens of the British colonial experience, privileging a particular path with all its subsequent implications for how we conceptualise the trajectory of South Asian history. In addition, the strong focus on British 19^th-century institutions seems to have blurred the possible influence of their early modern (or even pre-colonial) predecessors.  

This one-day workshop seeks to complicate teleological readings of law and its relationship to colonial institutions and state-making by drawing on contexts beyond and before British domination in the subcontinent. By evoking the ‘uses of law’ we hope to capture both the constraints and opportunities the creation of colonial institutions posed for a wide range of people, whether colonial administrators, local elites, merchants, farmers or widows.

Central questions in this workshop are:

-        How did pluralistic settings affect the development of colonial institutions, and in what ways did these institutions appropriate and transform indigenous legalities?

-        How might local actors have sought to contest or benefit from particular colonial institutions?

-        And to what extent is it possible to capture indigenous agency when meditated through colonial institutions?

We therefore invite researchers to consider law in relation to 17^th- and 18^th-century colonial institutions, broadly defined, including courts of law, trading companies, religious missions and tax administrations. We welcome proposals from both junior and senior scholars with different geographical backgrounds, and comparative studies are certainly encouraged. Abstracts (max. 300 words) should be sent to southasianlawradboud@gmail.com before October 22, 2018. Decisions on acceptance of presentations will be communicated no later than October 29, 2018. For more information, contact one of the workshop’s organisers.

(source: ESCLH Blog)

BOOK: Andreas VON ARNAULD (ed.), Völkerrecht in Kiel. Forschung, Lehre und Praxis des Völkerrechts am Standort Kiel seit 1665 [Veröffentlichungen des Walther-Schücking-Instituts für Internationales Recht an der Universität Kiel (VIIR), Band 198] (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 2017), 592 p. ISBN 9783428152179, 129,9 EUR

(image source: Duncker&Humblot)

Book abstract:

Die Christiana Albertina in Kiel war 1665 erst die zweite deutsche Universität, an der ein Lehrstuhl eigens für das Natur- und Völkerrecht eingerichtet wurde, 1914 nahm in Kiel das erste universitäre Institut für internationales Recht in Europa die Arbeit auf. Die Geschichte von Forschung, Lehre und Praxis des Völkerrechts am Standort Kiel ist damit kein bloßer Bericht aus der norddeutschen Provinz; sie erweist sich vielmehr als ein Spiegel der Wissenschaftsgeschichte des Völkerrechts in Deutschland überhaupt. Der vorliegende Band zeichnet diese historischen Entwicklungen nach, institutionell, biographisch, thematisch, ereignisgeschichtlich, dokumentarisch. Ein Schwerpunkt liegt dabei auf den geschichtlichen Kontinuitäten und Brüchen des bewegten 20. Jahrhunderts.

More information with the publisher.

BOOK: Vincent GENIN, Le laboratoire belge du droit international. Une communauté épistémique et internationale de juristes (1869-1914) (Bruxelles: Académie Royale, 2018), 232 p. ISBN 978-2-8031-0652-3, € 15

(image source: ARB)

Book abstract:

L’histoire des juristes belges de droit international n’a jusqu’ici été l’objet d’aucune étude synthétique et l’intégration de l’histoire du droit international à la réflexion en sciences humaines en est encore à ses commencements. L’approche que propose ce livre, s’écartant des chemins classiques des points de vue purement juridique ou philosophique, est par conséquent pionnière. Cette réflexion, historique par sa méthode et ses enjeux, qui se veut ouvertement interdisciplinaire (histoire, droit, sociologie), appartient à l’histoire des relations internationales, dans la mesure où le rapport au droit international représente une des grandes données conditionnant la manière d’être au monde d’un pays.
Cet ouvrage émet l’hypothèse que la Belgique neutre a constitué un laboratoire conceptuel, institutionnel et intellectuel sui generis d’un droit international public en voie d’institutionnalisation, de 1869 — année de fondation de la première revue scientifique du domaine — à 1914. Il est enfin à même de nous informer sur les caractéristiques de ce milieu professionnel, concerné au premier chef par l’acte inaugural de la guerre, sur ses pratiques, ses codes, ses réseaux internationaux, la position des juristes mais aussi, en négatif, de nous renseigner sur un aspect méconnu de l’image de la Belgique et de sa position dans la hiérarchie internationale, à savoir sa contribution au droit international.

On the author:

Vincent Genin est docteur en histoire contemporaine de l’ULiège, chercheur postdoctoral du FWO à la KU Leuven et élève à l’École Pratique des Hautes Études (Ve section, Paris). Spécialisé en histoire des relations internationales, il consacre une part de ses travaux à l’histoire des courants intellectuels du xxe siècle. Auteur de plus de cinquante publications, il a soutenu une thèse sur les juristes belges de droit international, distinguée par le Prix Jean-Baptiste Duroselle et, pour son livre Incarner le droit international (1914-1940) paru en 2018, il a reçu le Prix Daniel Strasser de l’Institut de France.

 More information with the publisher.

CONFERENCE: Grotius on Contract and Force (Leuven: KULeuven, 15-16 NOV 2018)

(image source: goodreads)   

Legal Theory and Doctrine in Grotius’s De Jure Belli ac Pacis

Grotiana Conferences for the Preparation of the Quattrocentenary of De Jure Belli ac Pacis

GROTIUS ON CONTRACT AND ON FORCE

Organised by the Department of Roman Law and Legal History, University of Leuven

Auditorium Zeger Van Hee, Tiensestraat 41, B 3000 Leuven

PROGRAMME

Thursday, 15 November 2018: Grotius on Contract

Convener: Wim Decock

12.00-13.00                Registration and Lunch

13.00-13.30                Opening Session

Welcome by Randall Lesaffer

Introduction by Wim Decock

13.30-15.30                Suarez and Grotius

MARK SOMOS (Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law)

Suárez v Grotius: James Brown Scott’s Enduring Revival

SYDNEY PENNER (Asbury University)

Grotius and Suárez on Natural Law

ORAZIO CONDORELLI (University of Catania)

"Grotius' Doctrine of Alliances with Infidels and the Idea of Respublica Christiana"

FRANCESCA IURLARO (Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Neo-Latin Studies)

The ‘Fate’ of Legal Voluntarism: Suárez and Grotius Reading Alexander of Aphrodisias on Fate and Free Will

15.30 – 16.00             Coffee Break

16.00 – 18.00             Grotius on Consent, Contract and the Polity

GIOVANNI CHIODI (University of Milano-Bicocca)

Jus Commune Origins of Grotius’ Contract Law

PAOLO ASTORRI (KU Leuven)

Grotius’ Contract Theory: Between Moral Theology and Natural Law

SÖREN KOCH (University of Bergen)

The Reception of Grotius’ Contract Law in Scandinavia

CHRISTOPH A. STUMPF (University of Halle)

Consent and the Ethics of International Law - Revisiting Grotius’ System of States in a Secular Setting

18.00 – 18.30             Grotius on the Use of Force: Perfect War

                                   VALENTINA VADI (Lancaster University)

Gentili on the Use of Force and the Early Modern law of Nations

Friday, 16 November 2018: Grotius on the Use of Force

Conveners: Viktorija Jakjimovska and Randall Lesaffer

9.00 – 10.30               Grotius on the Use of Force: Perfect War [continued]

CAMILLA BOISEN (New York University Abu Dhabi)

Grotius and Humanitarian Intervention

AGATHA VERDEBOUT (Université Catholique de Lille)

Grotius’s Impact on the 17th, 18th and 19th Centuries

GUGLIELMO VERDIRAME (King’s College London)

Is Grotius's Idea of Perfect War Relevant to International Law today?

           

10.30 – 11.00             Coffee Break

11.00 – 13.00             Grotius on the Use of Force: Imperfect War

PHILIPPINE VAN DEN BRANDE (KU Leuven)

The Pre-Grotian Development of Reprisals

RANDALL LESAFFER (Tillburg University/KU Leuven)

Reprisal in the Grotian System

ROTEM GILADI (University of Helsinki)

A Corporate History of the Laws of War: Corporate Belligerency from Grotius to the Delegation Theory

TOM RUYS (University of Ghent)

                                   Grotius on Self-Defence and Defensive War: A Contemporary Perspective

13.00 – 14.00             Lunch

14.00 – 16.00             Grotius on the Use of Force: Internal Strife and War

DANTE FEDELE (KU Leuven/Université d'Artois)

Before Grotius: Some Remarks on Rebellion and Civil Strife in the Late-Medieval Ius Commune

RAYMOND KUBBEN (Associate fellow at i-Hilt Tilburg)

A Prodigy Child of the Dutch Revolt or Eighty Years’ War: Immediate ‘Precursors’ to Grotius on War and Revolt

VILLE KARI (University of Helsinki)

Hugo Grotius and the Law of Civil War in De Jure Belli ac Pacis Libri Tres  

VIKTORIJA JAKJIMOVSKA (KU Leuven)

                                   From ‘Pirates’ to ‘Belligerents’: A Post-Grotian Reading of the Debate on Enmity​

(more information here)

FREE ARTICLE: Max M. EDLING, "Peace Pact and Nation: An International Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States" (Past & Present CCXL (2018), No. 1 (Aug), 267-303)

(image source: OUP)

Abstract:

The origin of the United States Constitution is a perennial question in American historiography. In the last two decades a new ‘International’ interpretation has appeared that challenges an older ‘economic’ interpretation associated with Charles Beard and the so-called ‘Progressive’ tradition of historical analysis, which dominated scholarship for much of the twentieth century. The two interpretations assume different positions on what is known in American historiography as the ‘dual revolution’ thesis, i.e. the idea that the American founding was at the same time a struggle for home rule and a struggle over who should rule at home. Whereas the Progressive tradition has concentrated on the latter question, the International interpretation calls for renewed investigation of the former. The International interpretation presents the Constitution as a federal treaty that allowed thirteen newly independent and comparatively weak republics to maintain peace among themselves and to act in unison against competitors in the Atlantic marketplace and in the western borderlands of the continental interior. Whereas the Progressives identify the principal outcome of the founding to be the creation of a bourgeois state that faced inwards to make North America safe for capitalism, the Internationalists identify it as the creation of a stronger federal union that faced outward and allowed the United States to stand up to European powers and to conquer the North American continent. Yet despite the focus on the question of home rule, the Internationalist redefinition of the Constitution as a federal treaty also makes possible a fresh view on the old question of who should rule at home.

(read more here)

JOURNAL FORUM: Christianity and Human Rights (Journal of the History of Ideas LXXIX (2018), No.3 (July))

(image source: JHI Blog)

The Journal of the History of Ideas published a special forum on "Christianity and Human Rights".

Contents:

Udi Greenberg and Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins, "Introduction"
Dan Edelstein, "“Christian Human Rights in the French Revolution"
Gene Zubovich, “American Protestants and the Era of Anti-racist Human Rights"
Sarah Shortall, “Theology and the Politics of Christian Human Rights”
Udi Greenberg, “Catholics, Protestants, and the Tortured Path to Religious Liberty”
Paul Hanebrink, “An Anti-totalitarian Saint: The Canonization of Edith Stein”

More information here.