ESIL Interest Group History of International Law

ESIL Interest Group History of International Law

Thursday 24 October 2024

BOOK: Mary BRIDGES, "Dollars and Dominion: US Bankers and the Making of a Superpower" (Princeton University Press, 2024)

Source: PUP

Description:
The dominance of US multinational businesses today can seem at first like an inevitable byproduct of the nation’s superpower status. In Dollars and Dominion, Mary Bridges tells a different origin story. She explores the ramshackle beginnings of US financial power overseas, showing that US bankers in the early twentieth century depended on the US government, European know-how, and last-minute improvisation to sustain their work abroad. Bridges focuses on an underappreciated piece of the nation’s financial infrastructure—the overseas branch bank—as a brick-and-mortar foundation for expanding US commercial influence.

Bridges explores how bankers sorted their new communities into “us”—potential clients—and “them”—local populations, who often existed on the periphery of the banking world. She argues that US bankers mapped their new communities by creating foreign credit information—and by using a financial asset newly enabled by the Federal Reserve System, the bankers’ acceptance, in the process. In doing so, they constructed a new architecture of US trade finance that relied on long-standing inequalities and hierarchies of privilege. Thus, racialized, class-based, and gendered ideas became baked into the financial infrastructure.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, there was nothing inevitable or natural about the rise of US finance capitalism. Bridges shows that US foreign banking was a bootstrapped project that began as a side hustle of Gilded Age tycoons and sustained itself by relying on the power of the US state, copying the example of British foreign bankers, and building alliances with local elites. In this way, US bankers constructed a flexible and durable new infrastructure to support the nation’s growing global power.

Mary Bridges, a historian of the twentieth-century United States, is the Ernest May Fellow in History and Policy at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

Wednesday 23 October 2024

CALL FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST: (De-/re-)constructions of International Law over Time and Space, ESIL Interest Group for the History of International Law (2025 ESIL Annual Conference on “Reconstructing International Law”, Freie Universität Berlin, 10-13 September 2025, DEADLINE: 15 January 2025)

 


Call for Expression of Interest

ESIL Interest Group on the History of International Law

Agora Panel Proposal for the ESIL Annual Conference 2025

  (De-/re-)constructions of International Law over Time and Space

Berlin, 10 to 13 September 2025

Submission deadline: 15 January 2025

The ESIL Interest Group on the History of International Law is preparing an Agora panel proposal on ‘(De-/re-)constructions of International Law over Time and Space for the 2025 ESIL Annual Conference “Reconstructing International Law” in Berlin, Germany. The outcome of the Agora proposal is uncertain, but the panel speakers will be invited to present at the interest group pre-conference workshop, if the Agora proposal is not selected by the conference organizers.

Themes

This Agora aims to better understand the theme of ‘reconstructing international law’ from a historical perspective: (1) What have been the causes and reasons for (re-)constructions of international law in its history? (2) How has international law fared after past major systemic crises? (3) What can we learn from institutional and normative projects of (re-)constructing ‘new’ international law in the past?

Until modern times, international relations were determined by the good will of the sovereign and force played the dominant role in these relations. There has been no agreed definition as to when ‘international law’ exactly began, but it is generally agreed that (de-/re-)construction has been a common theme in the history of international law at various moments in time, with the Westphalian Peace of 1648 being marked as one of the most famous watershed moments. The subsequent transition from European public law to international law through colonial expansion was another important moment of territorial ‘reconstruction.’ Conversely, one might inquire about the extent to which decolonization and the admission of newly independent states has led to the ‘reconstruction’ of Eurocentric international law in the 20th century.

At the same time, reconstruction can be approached from an institutional perspective or through the historical expansion of the actors or sources of international law. One could also explore the (de-/re-) construction of international law through the rise and fall of its individual sub-disciplines or by looking at reconstruction within and across sub-disciplines. Apart from successful (de-/re-) construction, the failed attempts of various actors to (de-/re-)construct international law could provide important lessons about reform. In addition to the restructuring of international law in the history, we are also interested in papers discussing the restructuring of ‘the history of international law’ as a discipline, its theories, and methodologies.

The IG particularly encourages interdisciplinary research engaging with historical methods, such as the use of archives and other historical sources. Perspectives from underrepresented regions and critical scholars are particularly welcomed.

Submission procedure

Members of the HIL IG and other ESIL Members working on related topics are invited to express their interest in participating by sending to lamsh@vuw.leidenuniv.nl prior to the deadline the following documents:

-          An Abstract of no more than 400 words

-          Your curriculum vitae

-          Your short biography, indicating whether you are an ESIL member and whether you are applying for the ESIL Early-Career Scholar Prize

 Timeline

The deadline for expressing interest in the Agora panel proposal is 15 January 2025. We expect to inform successful applicants before 31 January 2025 if they will be part of the Proposal.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact Ocean: lamsh@vuw.leidenuniv.nl.

Please note that the Interest Group is prioritizing those who could present their papers in person. However, the Interest Group is unable to provide funding for travel and accommodation. Selected speakers will be expected to bear the costs of their own travel and accommodation. Some ESIL travel grants and ESIL carers’ grants will be available to offer partial financial support to speakers who have exhausted other potential funding sources.

Please see the ESIL website for all relevant information about the conference.

Conveners

Anastasia Hammerschmied – Florenz Volkaert - Jaanika Erne – Sze Hong Lam (Ocean)

Tuesday 15 October 2024

SEMINAR SERIES: "Thinking Gender, History, & International Law" (University of Warwick/Teams, October 2024 - March 2025)



Description:

Our aim is to engage a global audience interested in critical, feminist, and postcolonial perspectives on contemporary and historical issues in international law and politics. The series aims to create a space for academic research and networking, bringing together scholars from various fields to discuss feminist and gender-centred issues in history and international law. Each session will feature a dialogue between two or more scholars to foster discussion and conversation.

Our inaugural session, "How to Write Feminist Histories of International Law?", will take place next Monday, October 21, 2024, at 5pm BST. We're thrilled to have Aoife Donoughe, Maria Drakopolou, Diane Marie Amann, and Gina Heathcote as our distinguished speakers for this session.

Full list of seminar topics:

October 21, 2024: How to Write Feminist Histories of International Law?

November 18, 2024: How to Gender the Public and Private Divide in International Law?

December 2, 2024: Women's Rights and Human Rights: Carceral Genealogies from CEDAW to Istanbul

January 13, 2025: Decolonial Methods: Gender, History and Law Through Black Literature

February 3, 2025: Decolonising Children's Rights and International Criminal Law: Human Rights Between Security and Empowerment

February 25, 2025: Gender and International Criminal Law: History, Victimhood and Transitional Justice

March 17, 2025: International Law and Colour Line: Is Palestine a Feminist Issue?

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For more information and required pre-registration, visit Warwick University's dedicated webpage.

To subscribe to the mailing list, email paola.zichi@warwick.ac.uk or Aisel.Omarova@warwick.ac.uk. 

Monday 14 October 2024

SPECIAL ISSUE: Revista Brasileira de História & Ciências Sociais, "História do Direito Internacional" (Volume 16, Issue 32, 2024)


Source: Revista Brasileira de Historia & Ciencias Sociais


Description:

Apresentação do Volume 16 Número 32 da Revista Brasileira de História & Ciências Sociais

Denize Terezinha Leal Freitas, Fabiano Quadros Rückert, José Carlos da Silva Cardozo, Jonathan Fachini da Silva, Tiago da Silva Cesar, Wagner Silveira Feloniuk

4-5

História do Direito Internacional

Augusto Jaeger Junior, Arno Dal Ri Jr., Lucas Carlos Lima

6-10

Dossiê

Percursos do Princípio das Nacionalidades nas doutrinas belgas de Direito Internacional: do Círculo de Gante à Escola de Lovânia (1863-1953)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14295/rbhcs.v16i32.16513

Arno Dal Ri Jr

11-53

 

A cláusula da nação mais favorecida em tratados comerciais: percepções ocidentais sobre a prática latino-americana de tratados comerciais no final do século XIX e início do século XX

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14295/rbhcs.v16i32.16576

Florenz Volkaert, Fernando Muniz Shecaira

54-87

 

A participação brasileira na elaboração do Estatuto da CPJI: o papel de Clovis Bevilaqua a Raul Fernandes

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14295/rbhcs.v16i32.16509

Lucas Carlos Lima

88-107

 

A história da construção do modelo de produção tradicional do direito internacional

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14295/rbhcs.v16i32.16665

Amina Welten Guerra

108-138


A prática dos estados asiáticos na implementação do princípio de proteção de monumentos e obras de arte antes da Primeira Guerra Mundial

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14295/rbhcs.v16i32.16429

Alice Lopes Fabris

139-158


A obra literária de Carl Schmitt durante seus anos como protagonista jurídico do nacional-socialismo (1933-1936): uma sobreposição entre os escritos e os fatos

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14295/rbhcs.v16i32.16602

Marcelo Markus Teixeira

159-181


Decolonizing International Law: between demystifications and resignifications

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14295/rbhcs.v16i32.16555

Tatiana de A. F. R. Cardoso Squeff, Gabriel Pedro Dassoler Damasceno

182-205

 

O peticionamento das vítimas de violações de direitos humanos no sistema convencional das nações unida

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14295/rbhcs.v16i32.16529

Cristina Figueiredo Terezo Ribeiro, Thaís Magno

206-245

 

De objetivos universais a resultados locais: apontamentos para uma história da proteção regional aos direitos humanos

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14295/rbhcs.v16i32.16586

Alexander de Castro

246-269

 

Direitos africanos dos Direitos Humanos – análise desde a perspectiva jurídico-histórica

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14295/rbhcs.v16i32.16565

João Francisco

270-298

 

A talidomida no banco dos réus: o julgamento de Alsdorf (Alemanha, 1968) a partir da imprensa brasileira

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14295/rbhcs.v16i32.16582

Francieli Lunelli Santos

299-323

 

A Resiliência da Identidade: Indigenato e a Virada Histórica no Direito Internacional

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14295/rbhcs.v16i32.16369

Lucas Lixinski

324-354

 

O Supremo Acordo: usos jurídicos do passado da Anistia no julgamento da Arguição de Descumprimento de Preceito Fundamental n. 153

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14295/rbhcs.v16i32.16715

Ilanil Coelho, Pedro Odainai

355-390

 

Interesses políticos na evolução histórica do Direito Internacional dos Refugiados e no caso ucraniano: entre humanitarismo e seletividade na prática europeia

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14295/rbhcs.v16i32.16537

Augusto Jaeger Junior, Ricardo Strauch Aveline

391-420

 

Das contribuições de Francisco de Vitória ao necessário giro epistemológico para as Américas: o Direito Internacional redimensionado a partir do Sul Global

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14295/rbhcs.v16i32.16568

Thiago Giovani Romero, Wanda Helena Mendes Muniz Falcão, Vinicius Villani Abrantes

421-438

 

O solidarismo de Hugo Grócio como princípio normativo de um constitucionalismo transnacional no século XXI

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14295/rbhcs.v16i32.16724

Anderson Vichinkeski Teixeira


More info with the publisher.

Thursday 10 October 2024

SEMINAR: "France, Europe, empires, XVIe – début XIXe siècle" (École Normale Supérieure de Paris, October 2024 - May 2025)

Source: IDHES


Description:

France, Europe, empires, XVIe – début XIXe siècle

Dates

Du 18 octobre 2024 au 16 mai 2025
Annuel en quinzaine (sauf exception), le vendredi, 16 h – 18 h
Lieu
ENS
bâtiment Jaurès, aile Ulm, 2e étage, Salle Ferdinand Berthier (U207)
29 rue d’Ulm
75005 Paris
RER B : Luxembourg

Attention : entrée du public par le 24, rue Lhomond (et long parcours intérieur fléché)
Organisation

IDHES, UMR 8533 :
Michela Barbot (CNRS), Anne Conchon (Université Paris 1), Laurence Croq (Université Paris Nanterre), Vincent Demont (Université Paris Nanterre), Vincent Milliot (Université Paris 8), Daniel Velinov (CNRS) et Julien Villain (Université Évry Paris-Saclay)
Programme
Vendredi 18 octobre 2024

Séance introductive
Vendredi 8 novembre 2024

Catherine Denys, Université de Lille
Comment naît une police coloniale d’Ancien Régime ? L’exemple de l’île de France (île Maurice) au XVIIIe siècle
Vendredi 22 novembre 2024

Simon Castanie, docteur de l’Université Sorbonne Université
L’emprisonnement pour dette à Paris dans la seconde moitié du XVIIIe siècle
Vendredi 6 décembre 2024

Jean-Paul Zuniga, CRH, EHESS
Catégorie fiscale et identification sociale : dire l’appartenance à Santiago du Chili (fin XVIIe – début XVIIIe siècle)
Vendredi 24 janvier 2025

Giorgio Riello, Warwik University, IUE Florence
The Workshop of the World: Factories and Capitalism in Early Modern Global Asia
Vendredi 7 février 2025

Marie Houllemare, Université de Genève
Masculinités esclavagistes : genre et violence dans la Caraïbe française au XVIIIe siècle
Vendredi 21 février 2025

Laurence Croq, Université Paris Nanterre
La police des femmes de lettres à Paris au XVIIIe siècle
Vendredi 14 mars 2025

Guillaume Garner, ENS Lyon
Le caméralisme : une économie politique du capitalisme ? (vers 1740 – vers 1800)
Vendredi 28 mars 2025

Thomas Pasquier, doctorant, Université Paris 8
Par-delà verrous et clôtures. Criminalité, ordre et propriété pendant la Révolution française 
Vendredi 11 avril 2025

Juliette Françoise, doctorante, Université de Genève, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
La régulation de la monnaie : un élément de la formation des empires modernes ? L’exemple de l’Empire français en Asie au XVIIIe siècle
Vendredi 25 avril 2025

Donia Menghini, doctorante, Université Paris 8
Maintenir l’ordre et policer la vallée du Saint-Laurent, de la Nouvelle-France au Canada anglais
Vendredi 16 mai 2025

Domitille de Gavriloff, doctorante, CENA, EHESS
Les missionnaires, éléments perturbateurs ou régulateurs de l’ordre esclavagiste et racial dans les colonies de la Caraïbe française, XVIIe-XVIIIe siècles ?


Dans la première quinzaine de juin aura lieu une journée d’études « carte blanche » organisée par les doctorants.

More info with IDHES.

Wednesday 9 October 2024

BOOK: Philip STERN, "Empire, Incorporated: The Corporations That Built British Colonialism" (Harvard University Press, 2023)

Source: HUP

Description:
Across four centuries, from Ireland to India, the Americas to Africa and Australia, British colonialism was above all the business of corporations. Corporations conceived, promoted, financed, and governed overseas expansion, making claims over territory and peoples while ensuring that British and colonial society were invested, quite literally, in their ventures. Colonial companies were also relentlessly controversial, frequently in debt, and prone to failure. The corporation was well-suited to overseas expansion not because it was an inevitable juggernaut but because, like empire itself, it was an elusive contradiction: public and private; person and society; subordinate and autonomous; centralized and diffuse; immortal and precarious; national and cosmopolitan—a legal fiction with very real power.

Breaking from traditional histories in which corporations take a supporting role by doing the dirty work of sovereign states in exchange for commercial monopolies, Philip Stern argues that corporations took the lead in global expansion and administration. Whether in sixteenth-century Ireland and North America or the Falklands in the early 1980s, corporations were key players. And, as Empire, Incorporated makes clear, venture colonialism did not cease with the end of empire. Its legacies continue to raise questions about corporate power that are just as relevant today as they were 400 years ago.

Challenging conventional wisdom about where power is held on a global scale, Stern complicates the supposedly firm distinction between private enterprise and the state, offering a new history of the British Empire, as well as a new history of the corporation.

More info with the publisher.

Tuesday 8 October 2024

BOOK: Patrick QUINTON-BROWN, "Intervention before Interventionism: A Global Genealogy" (OUP, 2024)

Source: OUP

Description:

Intervention before Interventionism is about the ways in which statespeople have reordered intervention and non-intervention since the middle of the twentieth century. It is concerned primarily with non-Western contestations of Western-dominated order; it illustrates institutional change in and through decolonization; and it provides a conceptual roadmap for understanding dilemmas of intervention and non-intervention today, particularly in relation to contestation as it has re-emerged in the twenty-first century. While building on and conversing with existing literature, the book stands out from previous approaches insofar as it is a mapping of international struggles for the reconstitution of intervention in the globalization of the society of states.

Table of Contents:

Introduction
1 Reconstituting intervention: Contestation and the Princeton Conference
2 Dictatorial intervention and the UN Charter
3 Anti-colonial intervention and the Bandung Spirit
4 ‘Friendly’ intervention and the Special Committee
5 Emancipatory intervention and the New International Orders
6 Liberal intervention and the Responsibilities to Protect
Epilogue

More info with the publisher.