BOOK: Maurice VAÏSSE (dir.), Diplomaties étrangères en mutation (Paris: Pedone, 2019), 234 p. ISBN 9782233009142, € 20

(image source: Pedone)

Book abstract:

Connaissez-vous la Farnesina, le MID, l’Itamaraty ? Ces noms mythiques sont ceux des ministères italien, russe, brésilien des Affaires étrangères, dont le portrait est tracé dans cet ouvrage avec ceux de l’Allemagne, du Canada, de la Chine, des Etats-Unis, du Japon, du Royaume Uni et de la Turquie. Car on parle de politique étrangère, de relations internationales, et on méconnaît généralement les acteurs et les outils diplomatiques. Après le portrait du Quai d’Orsay, dressé dans Diplomatie française, acteurs et outils depuis 1980 (Odile Jacob, 2018), il semblait indispensable d’étudier les principales diplomaties étrangères. Or, celles-ci, confrontées à la mondialisation, ont subi de profondes transformations au cours de ces quarante dernières années, comme le Quai d’Orsay. Au-delà de la description des institutions, cet ouvrage permet ainsi d’analyser les défis que ces diplomaties doivent relever, en particulier la prééminence des chefs d’Etat ou de gouvernement, et les réponses divergentes : d’un côté, des diplomaties occidentales affectées par des coupes budgétaires et un déclin des diplomates dans l’appareil d’Etat, de l’autre, des diplomaties des Etats émergents, pour lesquels elles sont un instrument de puissance. Il s’agit donc d’une plongée fascinante dans le monde discret des chancelleries.

Table of contents:

 Préface, Maurice Vaïsse
John Keiger, Résistance et réforme au Foreign and Commonwealth Office depuis les années 1980
Evgenia Obitchkina, Le MID
Giovanni Caracciolo Di Vietri, La Farnesina et la diplomatie italienne : son histoire et ses outils
Jana Jabbour, Le Dışişleri Bakanlığı : un organe au service de la politique de puissance de la Turquie
Maya Kandel, Le département d’Etat
Greg Donaghy, Affaires mondiales Canada : un ministère toujours vert, 1909-2019
Yves Saint-Geours, L’Itamaraty
Alice Ekman, Les institutions diplomatiques chinoises
Guibourg Delamotte, Le MOFA : redéfinition du statut et du rôle du ministère des Affaires étrangères japonais depuis les années 1990
Postface, Yves Saint-Geours

Hans Dieter Heumann, L’Auswärtiges Amt

See publisher's website.

(source: Multipol)

ARTICLE: Thomas G. OTTE, 'The Inner Circle: What is Diplomatic History? (And Why We Should Study it): An Inaugural Lecture" (History, 2020)

(image source: Wiley)

Article abstract:

The debate about the purpose (and uses) of studying diplomatic and internationalhistory are as old as the subject itself. This article traces the origins and developmentof diplomatic history as a specialized field within history as a wider discipline, beforeexploring more recent challenges to it. The article seeks to highlight both the scope for,and the opportunities to be found in, cross-fertilization with ideas derived from cognatedisciplines. At the same time, it also seeks to show the conceptual and methodologicalpitfalls of recent attempts at innovation in the field. It concludes by reasserting the essentialimportance of politics as the core of international history and by underlining its potentialfor guiding current policy as well as its limitations in that respect.

Acknowledgments:

 This is a revised version of the author's inaugural lecture as Professor of Diplomatic History on 29 Nov. 2016. The lecture format has been deliberately retained. The author has incurred a number of debts of gratitude in connection with this article, most notably to Zara Steiner, and further to Jeremy Black, Erik Goldstein, David Milne, Kristina Spohr and Jan Vermeiren.

(Read more on Wiley's website)

BOOK: Guido BRAUN (Hrsg.), Diplomatische Wissenskulturen der Frühen Neuzeit : Erfahrungsräume und Orte der Wissensproduktion. Erfahrungsräume und Orte der Wissensproduktion [Bibliothek des DHI im Rom, 136] (Berlin: De Gruyter Oldenbourg, 2018), XLI + 306 p. ISBN 9783110595666, € 99,5

(image source: DeGruyter)

Book abstract:

The methodology of cultural history opens new pathways for researching diplomatic figures and structures in the premodern era. However, until now, early modern knowledge cultures have not been researched in terms of their cultural impacts on diplomats and their role in producing knowledge. This volume examines this topic in the context of “spaces of experience” and “places of knowledge production” in early modern diplomacy.

On the editor:

Guido Braun, Université de Haute-Alsace, Mulhouse, France

(more information with the publisher)

BOOK: Filip BATSELÉ, Liberty, Slavery and the Law in Early Modern Western Europe. Omnes Homines aut Liberi Sunt aut Servi [Studies in the History of Law and Justice, eds. Mortimer SELLARS & Georges MARTYN, vol. 17] (Heidelberg: Springer, 2020), 978-3-030-36854-8, 93,8 EUR

(image source: Springer)

Book abstract:

This book investigates the legal evolution of the “free soil principle” in England, France and the Low Countries during the Early Modern period (ca. 1500–1800), which essentially stated that, as soon as slaves entered a certain country, they would immediately gain their freedom. This book synthesizes the existing literature on the origins and evolution of the principle, adds new insights by drawing on previously undiscussed primary sources on the development of free soil in the Low Countries and employs a pan-Western, European and comparative approach to identify and explain the differences and similarities in the application of this principle in France, England and the Low Countries. Divided into four sections, the book begins with a brief introduction to the subject matter, putting it in its historical context. Slavery is legally defined, using the established international law definition, and both the status of slavery in Europe before the Early Modern Period and the Atlantic slave trade are discussed. Secondly, the book assesses the legal origins of the free soil principle in England, France and the Low Countries during the period 1500–1650 and discusses the legal repercussions of slaves coming to England, France and the Low Countries from other countries, where the institution was legally recognized. Thirdly, it addresses the further development of the free soil principle during the period 1650–1800. In the fourth and last section, the book uses the insights gained to provide a pan-Western, European and comparative perspective on the origins and application of the free soil principle in Western Europe. In this regard, it compares the origins of free soil for the respective countries discussed, as well as its application during the heyday of the Atlantic slave trade. This perspective makes it possible to explain some of the divergences in approaches between the countries examined and represents the first-ever full-scale country comparison on this subject in a book.

Table of contents:

Introduction
The Legal and Institutional Framework of Slavery
The Development of a Legal Freedom Principle, Ca. 1500–1650
England Ca. 1650–1800: Neither Emancipated nor Fully Enslaved
Strains on French Freedom: Turks and Nègres in Metropolitan France
The United Provinces: Abandoning the Freedom Principle Sub Silentio(?)
A Legal Comparison of the Freedom Principle—Similarities and Differences
General Conclusion—The Soil of Europe: Free or Unfree?

More information with the publisher.

(source: ESCLH Blog)

BOOK SERIES: Ronald EDSFORTH (ed.), A Cultural History of Peace (London: Bloomsbury, 2020), 6 v. (currently) 355,5 GBP

(image source: Bloomsbury)

On the collection:

A Cultural History of Peace presents an authoritative survey from ancient times to the present. The set of six volumes covers a span of 2500 years, tracing how different cultures and societies have thought about, struggled for, developed and sustained peace in different ways and at different times.
1. A Cultural History of Peace in Antiquity (500 BCE - 800 CE)
2. A Cultural History of Peace in the Medieval Age (800 - 1450)
3. A Cultural History of Peace in the Renaissance (1450 - 1648)
4. A Cultural History of Peace in the Age of Enlightenment (1648 - 1815)
5. A Cultural History of Peace in the Age of Empire (1815 - 1920)
6. A Cultural History of Peace in the Modern Age (1920 - present)
Each volume discusses the same themes in its chapters:
1. Definitions of Peace
2. Human Nature, Peace and War
3. Peace, War and Gender
4. Peace, Pacifism and Religion
5. Representations of Peace
6. Peace as Integration
7. Peace Movements
8. Peace, Security and Deterrence
This structure offers readers a broad overview of a period within each volume or the opportunity to follow a theme through history by reading the relevant chapter across volumes.
Generously illustrated, the full six-volume set combines to present the most authoritative and comprehensive survey available on peace in history.

On the series editor:

Ronald Edsforth is Distinguished Senior Lecturer in History and Chair of Globalization Studies in the Masters in Arts in Liberal Studies (MALS) program at Dartmouth College, USA. He is the author of The New Deal: America's Response to the Great Depression (2000) and Class, Capital and Cultural Consensus (1986). He is also the co-editor, along with Larry Bennett, of Popular Culture and Political Change in Modern America (1991). 

Table of contents:

Volume 1: A Cultural History of Peace in Antiquity
Edited by Sheila Ager, University of Waterloo, CanadaVolume 2: A Cultural History of Peace in the Medieval Age
Edited by Walter Simons, Dartmouth College, USAVolume 3: A Cultural History of Peace in the Renaissance
Edited by Isabella Lazzarini, University of Molise, ItalyVolume 4: A Cultural History of Peace in the Age of Enlightenment
Edited by Stella Ghervas, Newcastle University, UK and David Armitage, Harvard University, USAVolume 5: A Cultural History of Peace in the Age of Empire
Edited by Ingrid Sharp, University of Leeds, UKVolume 6: A Cultural History of Peace in the Modern Age
Edited by Ronald Edsforth, Dartmouth College, USA

(source: Bloomsbury)

BOOK: Valentina VADI, War and Peace. Alberico Gentili and the Early Modern Law of Nations [Legal History Library, 37/Studies in the History of International Law, vol. 14 ed. Randall LESAFFER] (Leiden/Boston: Martinus Nijhoff/Brill, MAY 2020), 596 p. ISBN 9789004345249, € 160

(image source: Wikimedia Commons)

Book abstract:
In War and Peace, Valentina Vadi investigates Alberico Gentili’s contribution to the development of the early modern law of nations. Gentili discussed issues that remain topical today, including the clash of civilizations, the conduct of war, and the maintenance of peace.

(source: Brill)

BOOK: William BAIN (ed.), Medieval Foundations of International Relations (London: Routledge, 2017), 196 p. ISBN 9781138795792

(image source: Routledge)

Book abstract:

The purpose of this volume is to explore the medieval inheritance of modern international relations. Recent years have seen a flourishing of work on the history of international political thought, but the bulk of this has focused on the early modern and modern periods, leaving continuities with the medieval world largely ignored. The medieval is often used as a synonym for the barbaric and obsolete, yet this picture does not match that found in relevant work in the history of political thought. The book thus offers a chance to correct this misconception of the evolution of Western international thought, highlighting that the history of international thought should be regarded as an important dimension of thinking about the international and one that should not be consigned to history departments. Questions addressed include: what is the medieval influence on modern conception of rights, law, and community? how have medieval ideas shaped modern conceptions of self-determination, consent, and legitimacy? are there ‘medieval’ answers to ‘modern’ questions? is the modern world still working its way through the Middle Ages? to what extent is the ‘modern outlook’ genuinely secular? is there a ‘theology’ of international relations? what are the implications of continuity for predominant historical narrative of the emergence and expansion of international society? Medieval and modern are certainly different; however, this collection of essays proceeds from the conviction that the modern world was not built on a new plot with new building materials. Instead, it was constructed out of the rubble, that is, the raw materials, of the Middle Ages.This will be of great interest to students and scholars of IR, IR theory and political theory.

Table of contents:

1. The Medieval Contribution to Modern International Relations
[William Bain]2. The Medieval and the International: A Strange Case of Mutual Neglect
[Nicholas Rengger]3. Metaphysics and the Problem of International Order
[C.J.C Pickstock]4. Secularism in Question: Hugo Grotius’s ‘Impious Hypothesis’ Again
[Francis Oakley]5. Between False-Universalism and Radical-Particularism: Thoughts on Thomas Hobbes and International Relations
[Joshua Mitchell]6. The Medieval Roman and Canon Law Origins of International Law
[Joseph Canning]7. Then and Now: The Medieval Conception of Just War Versus Recent Portrayals of the Just War Idea
[James Turner Johnson]8. Humanitarian Intervention in a World of Sovereign States: The Grotian Dilemma
[James Muldoon]9. The Medieval and Early Modern Legacy of Rights: The Rights to Punish and to Property
[Camilla Boisen and David Boucher]10. International Relations and the ‘Modern’ Middle Ages: Rival Theological Theorisations of International Order
[Adrian Pabst]

On the editor:

 William Bain is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science, National University of Singapore. His research engages questions of international political theory and Internationa Relations Theory, with a specific focus on the theological foundations of international relations.

(source: Routledge)

BOOK: Fiammetta PALLADINI (transl. David SAUNDERS), Samuel Pufendorf Disciple of Hobbes For a Re-Interpretation of Modern Natural Law [Early Modern Natural Law: Studies & Sources, Volume: 2] (Leiden-New York: Brill, 2020). ISBN 978-90-04-38861-1, €124.00

(Source: Brill)

Brill has published an English translation of Fiammetta Palladini’s Samuel Pufendorf discepolo di Hobbes (1990).

ABOUT THE BOOK

Fiammetta Palladini’s work is one of the most important discussions of Pufendorf to appear in the latter part of the twentieth century. It cut through the existing field of Pufendorf studies, laying bare its inherited templates and tacit assumptions. Palladini was thus able to peel back the ‘Grotian’ commentary in which the great thinker had been shrouded, revealing a Pufendorf well-known in the 1680s—a formidable and dangerous natural jurist and political theorist—but doubly obscured in the 1980s and still today, by a philosophical history that flies too high to see him, and by a commentary literature that too often does not like what it sees. David Saunders’ remarkable translation carries Palladini’s argument into English with maximum fidelity.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR, TRANSLATOR AND EDITOR

   

Fiammetta Palladini graduated in Philosophy at the University of Rome – La Sapienza in 1965. Until her retirement she was Primo ricercatore at the National Council for Research, Rome, based in Berlin. She has published several books and many papers on Samuel Pufendorf, on Jean Barbeyrac, and on 17th century moral and political philosophy, including Discussioni seicentesche su Samuel Pufendorf(1978), Samuel Pufendorf discepolo di Hobbes (1990), La Biblioteca di Samuel Pufendorf (1999), and Die Berliner Huguenotten und der Fall Barbeyrac (2011).

David Saunders is Emeritus Professor, Griffith University, Australia. An Oxford graduate with a 1973 Grenoble doctorate in Italian, his works include Anti-lawyers: Religion and the Critics of Law and State (1997), “The natural jurisprudence of Jean Barbeyrac: translation as an art of political adjustment” ( Eighteenth-Century Studies, 2003) and, co-edited with Ian Hunter, Samuel Pufendorf, The Whole Duty of Man According to the Law of Nature (2003).

Ian Hunter is Emeritus Professor, Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Queensland. He was awarded his doctorate by Griffith University in 1987, and is the author of various works on natural law and the history of political thought. These includeRival Enlightenments (2001), The Secularisation of the Confessional State (2007), “Public Law and the Limits of Philosophy” ( Critical Inquiry, 2018) and, co-authored with David Saunders, “Bringing the State to England” ( History of Political Thought, 2003).

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction (Ian Hunter)
A note from the translator (David Saunders)
Preface
Introduction

Part One: Pufendorf the Hobbesian
I. The theory of obligation
1. The hobbesian matrix of the theory
2. The re-thinking of the hobbesian principles
II. Nature of man and state of nature: the doctrine of sociality
1. Human nature
2. The state of nature
3. The hobbesian inheritance in the doctrines of sociality and the state of nature
4. Consequences of the force of Pufendorf’s anti-hobbesian arguments relating to the state of nature

Part Two: Why did Pufendorf pass for an anti-hobbesian?
I. Pufendorf’s place in the history of ethics according to Pufendorf
II. The role of Cumberland
1. The utilisation of Cumberland
2. Differences between the first and the second editions of the De iure
3. Cumberlandian paternity of these notions
4. Incompatibility of Cumberland’s system with that of Pufendorf
5. Other variants between the first and the second editions of the De iure
III. Anti-hobbesian aspects of the Elementa
1. The social nature of man in observation 3 of the Elementa
2. How this observation is utilised and transformed in the De iure
3. The origin of civil society in the Elementa and the De iure
4. Drawbacks of the utilisation of the Elementa in the De iure
5. What relation is there, according to Pufendorf, between law of nature and utility?
6. The evolution of Pufendorf’s thought
IV. The Barbeyrac factor Conclusion Leave-taking

More info here

(source: ESCLH)

CONFERENCE: Entangled international and national legal orders in the long 19th century (Zürich: University of Zürich, 2-3 MAR 2020)

Entangled international and national legal orders

in the long 19th century 2-3 March 2020, University of Zurich

Monday, 2^nd March 2020, room RAA-G-01, University of Zurich

14,15-14,30: Introductory remarks, Raphael Cahen (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), Frederik Dhondt (Vrije Universiteit Brussel/Antwerp University), Elisabetta Fiocchi Malaspina (University of Zurich)

14,30-15,15: Keynote by Andreas Thier (University of Zurich)

15,15-16,00: Frederik Dhondt, Legal arguments in the debate on recognition of Italian independence in Belgian parliament (November 1861) 

16,00-16,45: Pietro Costa (University of Florence), Nation-building and State-building in the ‘long’ Nineteenth Century: Identity Myths and Domination Strategies

16,45-17,15: Coffee Break

17,15-18,00: Raphael Cahen, Constitutional and international entanglements in nineteenth century: the case of the Litigation committee of the French foreign minister and his actors

(1835-1871)

18,00-18,45: Markus J. Prutsch (European Parliament/Heidelberg University), The “Vienna System” and the German Confederation: Stability, Sovereignty and Constitutionalism

Tuesday, 3^rd March 2020, room RAA-G-01, University of Zurich

9,00-9,45: Inge Van Hulle (Tilburg University), Plural normative orders and the negotiation of land rights in West Africa (1880-1920)

9,45-10,30: Lisa Ford (University of New South Wales), Sovereignty, Settlement and International Law: the case of Honduras

10,30-11,00: Coffee Break

11,30-11,45: Elisabetta Fiocchi Malaspina, Colonial and International Entanglements in Nineteenth-Century Legal Discourses on Land Law and Land Registration

11,45-12,15: Concluding remarks

Room RAA-G-01, University of Zurich, Rämistrasse 59

(more information: conferencezurich2020@gmail.com) 

BOOK: Hervé DRÉVILLON (dir.), Mondes en Guere. T. 2: L'Âge Classique, XVe-XIXe siècle (Paris: Passés Composés, 2019), 784 p. ISBN 978-2-3793-3247-0, € 39

(image source: Gregoiredetours)

Book abstract:

Explorer la diversité des pratiques guerrières sur tous les continents depuis la préhistoire jusqu’à nos jours, telle est l’ambition des Mondes en guerre. Dès l’Antiquité, la formation d’empires alimenta un vaste processus de confrontations et d’échanges militaires, avant que l’ère des Grandes Découvertes ne déclenche l’intégration de tous les continents dans un espace martial unifié. Ce second tome est celui de l’Âge classique de la guerre, celui de l’âge de la raison militaire, où l’essor de l’imprimé contribue à la normalisation des pratiques, sans effacer la dimension religieuse des conflits. Depuis les premières apparitions des arquebuses sur les champs de bataille au XVe siècle, jusqu’au développement d’une puissance militaire industrialisée au XIXe, les conditions de la guerre sont également marquées par l’avènement de la puissance de feu, sur terre comme sur mer. Des guerres civiles aux expéditions coloniales, en passant par la guerre navale, les sièges ou la guérilla, ce sont ainsi toutes les formes d’une guerre mondialisée qui sont ici explorées

On the editor:

Professeur d’histoire à l’université Paris-I, Hervé Drévillon est directeur de l’Institut des Études sur la Guerre et la Paix et directeur de la recherche au Service Historique de la Défense.

(see earlier on this blog)

LECTURE SERIES: Lauterpacht Centre for International Law Lent Term 2020

(image source: LCIL)

The Lauterpacht Centre for International Law announced its Lent Term lectures.

Among the events, we selected the following:

International Law and Political Engagement (ILPE) series: In Conversation with Gerry Simpson: On the Politics of Method (16 Jan)
'The State Theory of Grotius' - Professor Nehal Bhuta, University of Edinburgh (24 Jan)
The States We're in: Law, Inequality, Historiography, Resistance' - Dr Rose Parfitt, Kent Law School 

More information on the LCIL's website.

OPEN ACCESS: Temporary access to the top-ten most visited publications at OPIL (OUP, until 29 FEB 2020)

(image source: OPIL)

As we move into 2020 we reflect on some of the most popular subjects that were researched by users of Oxford Public International Law throughout 2019, from the rights of indigenous peoples, to the principle of sovereignty. Check out the list below for free access to excerpts and chapters from the top 10 most visited works across Oxford Scholarly Authorities in International Law and the Max Planck Encyclopedias of International Law, as well as links to the top 5 Open Access titles in our international law collection. Featured content will be free to read until 29 February 2020.

Contents include entries from the Max Planck Encyclopedia of International Law, Brownlie's Principles of Public International Law and Oppenheim's International Law.

(source: OPIL)

BOOK: Isabelle DASQUE, Les diplomates de la république (1871-1914) (Paris: Presses Sorbonne-Université, 2020), 720 p. ISBN 979-10-231-0646-6, € 35

(image source: Presses Sorbonne Université)

Book abstract:

Pour défendre les intérêts de la France à l’étranger, la IIIe République peut compter sur un corps diplomatique en partie renouvelé après la républicanisation de ses cadres, et stimulé par l’ardeur patriotique des lendemains de la défaite de Sedan. Malgré les efforts consentis pour démocratiser son personnel, la République s’appuie encore sur les représentants des élites traditionnelles, proches des milieux diplomatiques européens et familiers des pratiques sociales et culturelles héritées de l’ancienne société de cour. Toutefois, l’ouverture à d’autres cercles, la moindre part de l’hérédité et de l’endogamie, l’introduction de procédures de sélection davantage conformes au modèle méritocratique et l’uniformisation des filières, diplomatique et consulaire, montrent un corps traversé par des évolutions similaires à celles de la haute administration de la fin du XIXe siècle. Les diplomates entretiennent des relations très étroites avec les autres groupes dirigeants, auxquelles concourent la diversification de leurs parcours et de leurs stratégies de carrière, l’élargissement de leurs réseaux et la modernisation de leurs allégeances politiques. Ralliés aux institutions nouvelles, ils se sont prêtés aux termes d’un compromis acceptable avec la République, qui repose sur des mécanismes d’intégration réciproque et sur un consensus quant aux objectifs de la politique extérieure. Soucieux de respecter les traditions, garantes de la cohésion et de l’esprit de corps, les diplomates de la Belle Époque n’en ont pas moins posé les jalons d’une diplomatie plus moderne, adaptant leurs pratiques professionnelles aux mutations de la vie internationale. Ils ont toutefois le sentiment d’assister au crépuscule de la diplomatie du Concert, à laquelle s’identifiait toute une conception de l’ordre européen et du système international avant 1914 et dont ils cultivent d’ores et déjà la nostalgie.

On the author:

Isabelle Dasque est maître de conférences en histoire contemporaine, à la faculté des Lettres de Sorbonne Université et membre du Centre de recherches en histoire du XIXe siècle. Après une thèse intitulée À la recherche de Monsieur de Norpois : les diplomates de la République (1871-1914) dont cet ouvrage est issu, elle poursuit ses recherches sur l’histoire sociale et culturelle de la diplomatie aux XIXe et XXe siècles. 

(source: Presses Sorbonne Université)

BOOK: Albane GESLIN & Emmanuelle TOURME JOUANNET (dir). Le droit international de la reconnaissance, un instrument de décolonisation et de refondation du droit international ? (Nice: DICE, 2019), 204 p. ISBN 979-10-97578-07-7, OPEN ACCESS

(image source: DICE)

Book abstract:

Lorsqu’en 2011 est publié Qu’est-ce qu’une société internationale juste ? Le droit international entre développement et reconnaissance, d’Emmanuelle Tourme Jouannet, puis que paraît, l’année suivante son article « Le droit international de la reconnaissance », surgit dans le champ de la recherche française – et plus largement francophone – en droit international un nouveau paradigme, celui de la « reconnaissance ». Les réactions suscitées par ces publications furent vives. Il y eu quelques mécompréhensions du concept même de reconnaissance, et diverses critiques se firent entendre. C’est à l’occasion du premier workshop international du groupe de recherche Justice/Injustice Globale, les 8 et 9 septembre 2016, que fut abordée la question de savoir si le droit international de la reconnaissance pouvait être un instrument de décolonisation et de refondation du droit international.

On the editors:

Albane Geslin, Professeure de droit public. Sciences Po Aix - Aix Marseille Univ, Université de Toulon, Univ Pau & Pays Adour, CNRS, DICE, CERIC, Aix-en-Provence, France Emmanuelle Tourme Jouannet, Professeure de droit public, École de Droit, Sciences Po, Paris

Table of contents here.

JOURNAL: Journal of the History of International Law/Revue d'histoire du droit international XXI (2019), No. 4 (December)

(image source: Brill)

International Law as Insulation – The Case of the World Bank in the Decolonization Era (Dimitri Van Den Meerssche)
Abstract:

This article maps out how (international) legal concepts and norms were employed during the inter-institutional struggle between the United Nations and the World Bank in the decolonization era. The first contribution is historiographical. Drawing on material from the Bank’s (oral) archives, the article gives an original account of the ways in which the organization bypassed the universalist aspirations that were gaining a foothold in the UN’s democratic bodies. Secondly, the paper retraces how this particular event gave rise to a clash between opposing imaginaries of international legal order, where axiological aspirations voiced by states from the Global South were ultimately frustrated by a functionalist understanding of international (institutional) law that justified the Bank’s institutional insulation. Finally, the paper aims to provide a modest methodological contribution to the field of international institutional law – a doctrinal discipline that traditionally pays little empirical attention to the historical and sociological performativity of concrete legal interventions.

 The Co-creation of Imperial Logic in South American Legal History (Fernando Pérez Godoy)
Abstract:

This study is part of the current trend of expanding ‘histories of international law’. From a regional perspective, I analyse not just the South American dimension of the process known as the ‘universalization of international law science’, but also focus on the ‘ideological use’ of ius gentium europaeum in the debate on the occupation of indigenous territories governing by the nation Mapuche in the south of Chile (1861–1883) and then the discussion on the legitimacy of the Saltpeter War between Chile and the Bolivian-Peruvian Alliance (1879–1884). I argue that the Chilean national legal discourse applied a core argument of nineteenth-century international law to legitimize its foreign policy in those conflicts: ‘the standard of civilization’. Thus, it is possible to speak about a domestic recreation of imperial logic as part of the globalization of the European law of nations in the nineteenth century.

The Impasse of Human Rights: a Note on Human Rights, Natural Rights and Continuities in International Law (Mónica García-Salmones Rovira)
Abstract:

Studies on the nature of human rights have reached an impasse largely due to a general resistance to engage with the continuity of ideas and theories drawn from religion, morality and ethics in the history of international law. With the impasse of human rights, the article refers to an epistemological deadlock about what human rights are. Studying the concept of natural rights, it is argued, offers a means of breaking this impasse and, ultimately, easing the current tension between historicism and essentialism in human rights theory. The article concludes that natural rights were means to decide the moral questions posed by the violent redistribution of (material) goods taken to be common by the theoreticians of the expanding European empires. Probing in this manner into natural rights’ early uses and embedded theories gives us new tools and fresh approaches to be employed in relation to the challenges posed by contemporary global politics.

 Sovereignty under the League of Nations Mandates: The Jurists’ Debates (Leonard V. Smith)
Abstract:

The mandate system took shape at an inflexion point in the evolution from an international system based on rule over territories to one based on rule over peoples. Political compromises made at the Paris Peace Conference resulted in the creation of a new political agent, the League of Nations Mandate, with no clear sovereign. In seeking to systematize this political outcome, jurists located sovereignty with the victorious Great Powers, the League itself, and with the peoples of the mandate territories. Yet they never achieved a consensus, which created an absence at the centre of the mandate system that politics would have to fill throughout the interwar period.

Book reviews:

Frieden durch Recht? Der Aufstieg des modernen Völkerrechts und der Friedensschluss nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg, written by Marcus M. Payk
Justice in a New World: Negotiating Legal Intelligibility in British, Iberian, and Indigenous America, edited by Brian P. Owensby and Richard J. Ross By: Daniel S. Allemann
Le droit international antiesclavagiste des ‘nations civilisées’ (1815–1945), written by Michel Erpelding By: Anne-Charlotte Martineau

(source: Brill)

REMINDER: Pre-Conference Event Interest Group History of International Law: "The Founding of Solidarity in the International Community" (23-24 APR 2020) (DEADLINE 15 JAN 2020)

(image source: ESIL)

The ESIL Interest Group History of International Law will host a pre-conference workshop on “The Founding of Solidarity in the International Community” for graduate and Ph.D. students as well as early career scholars at the 2020 ESIL Research Forum at the University of Catania. The event is destined at uniting papers from various legal traditions and cultures, across all ages. We also invite contributions from disciplines other than law.
We are especially interested in papers investigating:

• The intellectual genesis of the community of states
• The interplay between religion, philosophy and the foundational utopias of international law
• The political use and instrumentalisation of international law by political actors
• The appropriation and acculturation process of European international legal principles in the age of Western imperialism

(see also ESIL Website)

PODCAST: Aristide Briand, prophète ou bateleur ? (France Culture: Concordance des Temps, 14 DEC 2019)

(image source: France Culture)

Podcast description:

Christophe Bellon, maître de conférences à l’Université catholique de Lille et chercheur associé au Centre d’histoire de Sciences Po, nous a donné une belle biographie d’Aristide Briand : nous allons évoquer avec lui cette personnalité considérable, ondoyante peut-être, mais plus déterminée dans ses habiletés mêmes que ses adversaires ne l’ont généralement dépeinte.

More information with France Culture.

SPECIAL ISSUE: American Historical Review Reflections on "One Hundred Years of Mandates" (American Historical Review CXXIV (2019), Issue 5)

(image source: OUP)

Introduction: The League of Nations Mandates and the Temporality of Deferral (Alex Lichtenstein & Michelle Moyd)

An International Regime in an Age of Empire (Susan Pedersen)
Abstract:

A century after the victorious Allied powers distributed their spoils of victory in 1919, the world still lives with the geopolitical consequences of the mandates system established by the League of Nations. The Covenant article authorizing the new imperial dispensation came cloaked in the old civilizationist discourse, entrusting sovereignty over “peoples not yet able to stand by themselves under the strenuous conditions of the modern world” to the “advanced nations” of Belgium, England, France, Japan, and South Africa. In this series of “reflections” on the mandates, ten scholars of Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and the international order consider the consequences of the new geopolitical order birthed by World War I. How did the reshuffling of imperial power in the immediate postwar period configure long-term struggles over minority rights, decolonization, and the shape of nation-states when the colonial era finally came to a close? How did the alleged beneficiaries—more often the victims—of this “sacred trust” grasp their own fates in a world that simultaneously promised and denied them the possibility of self-determination? From Palestine, to Namibia, to Kurdistan, and beyond, the legacies of the mandatory moment remain pressing questions today.

The Matter of Time (Sherene Seikaly)
Abstract:

A century after the victorious Allied powers distributed their spoils of victory in 1919, the world still lives with the geopolitical consequences of the mandates system established by the League of Nations. The Covenant article authorizing the new imperial dispensation came cloaked in the old civilizationist discourse, entrusting sovereignty over “peoples not yet able to stand by themselves under the strenuous conditions of the modern world” to the “advanced nations” of Belgium, England, France, Japan, and South Africa. In this series of “reflections” on the mandates, ten scholars of Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and the international order consider the consequences of the new geopolitical order birthed by World War I. How did the reshuffling of imperial power in the immediate postwar period configure long-term struggles over minority rights, decolonization, and the shape of nation-states when the colonial era finally came to a close? How did the alleged beneficiaries—more often the victims—of this “sacred trust” grasp their own fates in a world that simultaneously promised and denied them the possibility of self-determination? From Palestine, to Namibia, to Kurdistan, and beyond, the legacies of the mandatory moment remain pressing questions today.

The French Mandate in Lebanon (Carol Hakim)
Abstract:

A century after the victorious Allied powers distributed their spoils of victory in 1919, the world still lives with the geopolitical consequences of the mandates system established by the League of Nations. The Covenant article authorizing the new imperial dispensation came cloaked in the old civilizationist discourse, entrusting sovereignty over “peoples not yet able to stand by themselves under the strenuous conditions of the modern world” to the “advanced nations” of Belgium, England, France, Japan, and South Africa. In this series of “reflections” on the mandates, ten scholars of Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and the international order consider the consequences of the new geopolitical order birthed by World War I. How did the reshuffling of imperial power in the immediate postwar period configure long-term struggles over minority rights, decolonization, and the shape of nation-states when the colonial era finally came to a close? How did the alleged beneficiaries—more often the victims—of this “sacred trust” grasp their own fates in a world that simultaneously promised and denied them the possibility of self-determination? From Palestine, to Namibia, to Kurdistan, and beyond, the legacies of the mandatory moment remain pressing questions today.

The Ottoman Empire: The Mandate That Never Was (Yigit Akin)
Abstract:

A century after the victorious Allied powers distributed their spoils of victory in 1919, the world still lives with the geopolitical consequences of the mandates system established by the League of Nations. The Covenant article authorizing the new imperial dispensation came cloaked in the old civilizationist discourse, entrusting sovereignty over “peoples not yet able to stand by themselves under the strenuous conditions of the modern world” to the “advanced nations” of Belgium, England, France, Japan, and South Africa. In this series of “reflections” on the mandates, ten scholars of Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and the international order consider the consequences of the new geopolitical order birthed by World War I. How did the reshuffling of imperial power in the immediate postwar period configure long-term struggles over minority rights, decolonization, and the shape of nation-states when the colonial era finally came to a close? How did the alleged beneficiaries—more often the victims—of this “sacred trust” grasp their own fates in a world that simultaneously promised and denied them the possibility of self-determination? From Palestine, to Namibia, to Kurdistan, and beyond, the legacies of the mandatory moment remain pressing questions today.

Islands for an Anxious Empire: Japan’s Pacific Island Mandate  (Tze M. Loo)
Abstract:

 A century after the victorious Allied powers distributed their spoils of victory in 1919, the world still lives with the geopolitical consequences of the mandates system established by the League of Nations. The Covenant article authorizing the new imperial dispensation came cloaked in the old civilizationist discourse, entrusting sovereignty over “peoples not yet able to stand by themselves under the strenuous conditions of the modern world” to the “advanced nations” of Belgium, England, France, Japan, and South Africa. In this series of AHR “reflections” on the mandates, ten scholars of Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and the international order consider the consequences of the new geopolitical order birthed by World War I. How did the reshuffling of imperial power in the immediate postwar period configure long-term struggles over minority rights, decolonization, and the shape of nation-states when the colonial era finally came to a close? How did the alleged beneficiaries—more often the victims—of this “sacred trust” grasp their own fates in a world that simultaneously promised and denied them the possibility of self-determination? From Palestine, to Namibia, to Kurdistan, and beyond, the legacies of the mandatory moment remain pressing questions today.

Betwixt and Between Colony and Nation-State: Liminality, Decolonization, and the South West Africa Mandate (Molly McCullers)
Abstract:

 A century after the victorious Allied powers distributed their spoils of victory in 1919, the world still lives with the geopolitical consequences of the mandates system established by the League of Nations. The Covenant article authorizing the new imperial dispensation came cloaked in the old civilizationist discourse, entrusting sovereignty over “peoples not yet able to stand by themselves under the strenuous conditions of the modern world” to the “advanced nations” of Belgium, England, France, Japan, and South Africa. In this series of “reflections” on the mandates, ten scholars of Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and the international order consider the consequences of the new geopolitical order birthed by World War I. How did the reshuffling of imperial power in the immediate postwar period configure long-term struggles over minority rights, decolonization, and the shape of nation-states when the colonial era finally came to a close? How did the alleged beneficiaries—more often the victims—of this “sacred trust” grasp their own fates in a world that simultaneously promised and denied them the possibility of self-determination? From Palestine, to Namibia, to Kurdistan, and beyond, the legacies of the mandatory moment remain pressing questions today.

“Sons of the Soil”: Cause Lawyers, the Togo-Cameroun Mandates, and the Origins of Decolonization  (Meredit Terretta & Benjamin N. Lawrance)
Abstract:

A century after the victorious Allied powers distributed their spoils of victory in 1919, the world still lives with the geopolitical consequences of the mandates system established by the League of Nations. The Covenant article authorizing the new imperial dispensation came cloaked in the old civilizationist discourse, entrusting sovereignty over “peoples not yet able to stand by themselves under the strenuous conditions of the modern world” to the “advanced nations” of Belgium, England, France, Japan, and South Africa. In this series of “reflections” on the mandates, ten scholars of Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and the international order consider the consequences of the new geopolitical order birthed by World War I. How did the reshuffling of imperial power in the immediate postwar period configure long-term struggles over minority rights, decolonization, and the shape of nation-states when the colonial era finally came to a close? How did the alleged beneficiaries—more often the victims—of this “sacred trust” grasp their own fates in a world that simultaneously promised and denied them the possibility of self-determination? From Palestine, to Namibia, to Kurdistan, and beyond, the legacies of the mandatory moment remain pressing questions today.

The British Cameroons Mandate Regime: The Roots of the Twenty-First-Century Political Crisis in Cameroon 
Abstract:

A century after the victorious Allied powers distributed their spoils of victory in 1919, the world still lives with the geopolitical consequences of the mandates system established by the League of Nations. The Covenant article authorizing the new imperial dispensation came cloaked in the old civilizationist discourse, entrusting sovereignty over “peoples not yet able to stand by themselves under the strenuous conditions of the modern world” to the “advanced nations” of Belgium, England, France, Japan, and South Africa. In this series of “reflections” on the mandates, ten scholars of Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and the international order consider the consequences of the new geopolitical order birthed by World War I. How did the reshuffling of imperial power in the immediate postwar period configure long-term struggles over minority rights, decolonization, and the shape of nation-states when the colonial era finally came to a close? How did the alleged beneficiaries—more often the victims—of this “sacred trust” grasp their own fates in a world that simultaneously promised and denied them the possibility of self-determination? From Palestine, to Namibia, to Kurdistan, and beyond, the legacies of the mandatory moment remain pressing questions today.

A League to Preserve Empires: Understanding the Mandates System and Avenues for Further Scholarly Inquiry (Sean Andrew Wempe)
Abstract:

 A century after the victorious Allied powers distributed their spoils of victory in 1919, the world still lives with the geopolitical consequences of the mandates system established by the League of Nations. The Covenant article authorizing the new imperial dispensation came cloaked in the old civilizationist discourse, entrusting sovereignty over “peoples not yet able to stand by themselves under the strenuous conditions of the modern world” to the “advanced nations” of Belgium, England, France, Japan, and South Africa. In this series of “reflections” on the mandates, ten scholars of Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and the international order consider the consequences of the new geopolitical order birthed by World War I. How did the reshuffling of imperial power in the immediate postwar period configure long-term struggles over minority rights, decolonization, and the shape of nation-states when the colonial era finally came to a close? How did the alleged beneficiaries—more often the victims—of this “sacred trust” grasp their own fates in a world that simultaneously promised and denied them the possibility of self-determination? From Palestine, to Namibia, to Kurdistan, and beyond, the legacies of the mandatory moment remain pressing questions today.

Read more on the journal's website.