BOOK: Pablo KALMANOVITZ, The Laws of War in International Thought [The History and Theory of International Law] (Oxford: OUP, 2020), 208 p. ISBN 9780198790259, 70 GBP

 

(image source: OUP)

Abstract:

The Law of Armed Conflict is usually understood to be a regime of exception that applies only during armed conflict and regulates hostilities among enemies. It assigns privileges to states far beyond what they are allowed to do in peacetime, and it mandates certain protections for non-combatants, which can often be defeated by appeals to military necessity or advantage. The Laws of War in International Thought examines the intellectual history of the laws of war before their codification. It reconstructs the processes by which political and legal theorists built the laws' distinctive vocabularies and legitimized some of their broadest permissions, and it situates these processes within the broader intellectual project that from early modernity spelled out the nature, function, and powers of state sovereignty. The book focuses on four historical moments in the intellectual history of the laws of war: the doctrine of just war in Spanish scholasticism; Hugo Grotius's theory of solemn war; the Enlightenment theory of regular war; and late nineteenth-century humanitarianism. By looking at these moments, Pablo Kalmanovitz shows how challenging and polemical it has been for international theorists to justify the exceptional and permissive character of the laws of war. In this way, he contributes to recover a sense of the historical foundations and many still problematic aspects of the Law of Armed Conflict.

On the author:

Pablo Kalmanovitz is research professor at the Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE) in Mexico City.

(source: OUP) 

BOOK: Nicolas BOURGUINAT & Gilles VOGT, La guerre franco-allemande de 1870. Une histoire globale [Champs Histoire] (Paris: Flammarion, 2020), 528 p. ISBN 9782081510555, € 15

 

(image source: Flammarion)

Abstract:

La guerre de 1870 est méconnue. Un affrontement localisé, mené sur le seul territoire français par deux puissances rivales ; une Prusse dirigée d’une main de fer par l’habile chancelier Bismarck, qui met à genoux une France affaiblie par les errements d’un Second Empire en déclin et d’une République encore mal assurée ; la perte traumatique de l’Alsace-Lorraine sous les yeux indifférents d’une Europe muette : tels sont les traits qu’en a retenus notre mémoire nationale. Dans cette synthèse issue de travaux de première main, Nicolas Bourguinat et Gilles Vogt la peignent sous un nouveau visage. Mettant en lumière ses multiples résonances internationales, dans les chancelleries et les opinions publiques, ils montrent que l’affrontement de 1870 fut non seulement une étape clé de la question nationale mais aussi une date majeure pour le droit des conflits armés et les initiatives humanitaires face aux guerres. Faisant la part belle aux sources du for privé, ils font entendre les voix des individus qui l’ont vécu, soldats, assiégés, francs-tireurs ou simples civils éloignés des combats, pour éclairer d’un jour nouveau ce conflit déterminant dans l’histoire contemporaine.

(source: Flammarion) 

BOOK: Frédéric MÉGRET and Immi TALLGREN, eds., The Dawn of a Discipline International Criminal Justice and Its Early Exponents (Cambridge, 2020). ISBN 9781108488181, £ 110.00

(Source: CUP)

Cambridge University Press is publishing a new edited collection on key figures in the early history of international criminal justice.

ABOUT THE BOOK

The history of international criminal justice is often recounted as a series of institutional innovations. But international criminal justice is also the product of intellectual developments made in its infancy. This book examines the contributions of a dozen key figures in the early phase of international criminal justice, focusing principally on the inter-war years up to Nuremberg. Where did these figures come from, what did they have in common, and what is left of their legacy? What did they leave out? How was international criminal justice framed by the concerns of their epoch and what intuitions have passed the test of time? What does it mean to reimagine international criminal justice as emanating from individual intellectual narratives? In interrogating this past in all its complexity one does not only do justice to it; one can recover a sense of the manifold trajectories that international criminal justice could have taken.

ABOUT THE EDITORS

Frédéric Mégret, McGill University, Montréal

Frédéric Mégret is a Professor and Dawson Scholar at the Faculty of Law, McGill University. From 2006 to 2016 he held the Canada Research Chair on the Law of Human Rights and Legal Pluralism. His research focuses on the theory and history of international criminal justice.

Immi Tallgren, University of Helsinki

Immi Tallgren is a Docent (Adjunct Professor) of International Law, University of Helsinki and a Senior Researcher at the Erik Castrén Institute. She has worked as a diplomat, legal advisor in international organisations, and researcher, e.g., at the MPI Luxembourg and LSE. She currently studies the history of international law and gender, international criminal justice, law and cinema.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword Martti Koskenniemi
1. Introduction Frédéric Mégret and Immi Tallgren
2. Hugh Bellot Daniel Segesser
3. Vespasian V. Pella Andrei Mamolea
4. Emil Rappaport Patrycja Grzebyk
5. Quintiliano Saldaña Ignacio de la Rasilla del Moral
6. Henri Donnedieu de Vabres Frédéric Mégret
7. Hans Kelsen Monica Garcia-Salmones Rovira
8. Bert Röling Jan Klabbers
9. Radhabinod Pal Rohini Sen and Rashmi Raman
10. Aron Trainin Gleb Bogush
11. Raphael Lemkin Vesselin Popovski
12. Stefan Glaser Karolina Wierczyńska and Grzegorz Wierczynski
13. Yokota Kisaburo Matthias Zachmann
14. Jean Graven Damien Scalia
15. Absent or invisible? 'Women' intellectuals and professionals at the dawn of a discipline Immi Tallgren.

More info here

(source: ESCLH Blog)

BOOK: Don HERZOG, Sovereignty, RIP (New Haven (Conn.): Yale UP, 2020), 320 p. ISBN 0300247729, USD 22,81

(image source: amazon)

 Abstract:

Social order requires a sovereign: an actor with unlimited, undivided, and unaccountable authority. Or so the classic theory says. But without noticing, we’ve gutted the theory. Constitutionalism limits state authority. Federalism divides it. The rule of law holds it accountable. In vivid historical detail—with millions tortured and slaughtered in Europe, a king put on trial for his life, journalists groaning at idiotic complaints about the League of Nations, and much more—Don Herzog charts both the political struggles that forged sovereignty and the ones that undid it. He argues that it’s no longer a helpful guide to our legal and political problems, but a pernicious bit of confusion. It’s time, past time, to retire sovereignty.

 On the author:

Don Herzog is the Edson R. Sunderland Professor of Law at the University of Michigan. His many books include Defaming the Dead, Household Politics, and Cunning.

ADVANCE ARTICLE: Vanessa OGLE, ‘Funk Money’: The End of Empires, The Expansion of Tax Havens, and Decolonization as an Economic and Financial Event', Past & Present, 2020 (OPEN ACCESS)

 

(image: Geneva; source: Wikimedia Commons)

Abstract:

This article traces the emergence of an archipelago-like landscape of distinct legal and economic spaces throughout the long midcentury. Consisting of tax havens, offshore financial markets, flags of convenience, and economic free zones, this archipelago allowed free-market capitalism to flourish on the sidelines of a world increasingly dominated by more sizable and interventionist nation-states. It argues that certain characteristics of the rise of free-market capitalism since the 1970s and 1980s were previously practiced in the offshore archipelago, only to move back to Europe and North America with the rise of neoliberalism.

Read more with OUP (DOI 10.1093/pastj/gtaa001). 

BOOK: Michel DUMOULIN, Vincent GENIN & Sabina GOLA (dir), Autour de l'année 1866 en Italie [Enjeux internationaux/International Issues] (Bruxelles/Bern: Peter Lang, 2020), ISBN 978-2-8076-0941-9

 

(image source: Peter Lang)

Abstract:

1866 est l’année du triomphe de la Prusse sur l’Autriche à Sadowa. Elle est aussi celle de la campagne victorieuse de cette dernière contre l’Italie dont la déroute passe à l’histoire sous le nom de troisième guerre d’Indépendance. Paradoxalement, les défaites militaires se transforment en victoire sur le terrain diplomatique et politique puisque les provinces de Venise et de Mantoue intègrent le royaume d’Italie en novembre. Petit pays dont la neutralité est garantie, la Belgique n’est pas seulement attentive aux agissements de ces puissants voisins que sont la France et la Prusse. Elle l’est aussi à l’Italie avec laquelle elle entretient d’importants liens économiques, scientifiques et culturels que prolonge de début de coopérations internationales dont l’Union monétaire latine fournit un bon exemple. Dans le même temps, le clivage qu’entretient, au sein de certains secteurs de la société belge, la question romaine qui peut être vue comme la question italienne permet de mesurer le fossé qui existe entre l’imaginaire et le vécu des relations internationales.

(source: Peter Lang) 

BOOK: Paul TIEDEMANN, Philosophical Foundation of Human Rights (Cham: Springer, 2020). ISBN 978-3-030-42261-5, 74,89 EUR

 

(Source: Springer)

Springer is publishing a new book on the philosophical foundation of human rights.

ABOUT THE BOOK

This textbook presents a range of classical philosophical approaches in order to show that they are unsuitable as a foundation for human rights. Only the conception of human dignity –based on the Kantian distinction between price and dignity – can provide a sufficient basis. The derivation of human rights from the principle of human dignity allows us to identify the most crucial characteristic of human rights, namely the protection of personhood. This in turn makes it possible (1) to distinguish between real moral human rights and spurious ones, (2) to assess the scope of protection for many codified human rights according to the criteria of “core” and “yard,” and (3) offers a point of departure for creating new, unwritten human rights. This philosophical basis supports a substantial reassessment of the case law on human rights, which will ultimately allow us to improve it with regard to legal certainty, clarity and cogency.

The textbook is primarily intended for advanced law students who are interested in a deeper understanding of human rights. It is also suitable for humanities students, and for anyone in the political or social arena whose work involves human rights and their enforcement.

Each chapter is divided into four parts: Abstracts, Lecture, Recommended Reading, and Questions to check reader comprehension. Sample answers are included at the end of the book.

More info here

(source: ESCLH Blog)

BOOK: A. Dirk MOSES, Marco DURANTI, and Roland BURKE, Decolonization, Self-Determination, and the Rise of Global Human Rights Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020). ISBN 9781108479356, 90.00 GBP

(Source: CUP)

Cambridge University Press is publishing an edited collection on the global history of human rights politics in the age of decolonization.

ABOUT THE BOOK

This volume presents the first global history of human rights politics in the age of decolonization. The conflict between independence movements and colonial powers shaped the global human rights order that emerged after the Second World War. It was also critical to the genesis of contemporary human rights organizations and humanitarian movements. Anti-colonial forces mobilized human rights and other rights language in their campaigns for self-determination. In response, European empires harnessed the new international politics of human rights for their own ends, claiming that their rule, with its promise of 'development,' was the authentic vehicle for realizing them. Ranging from the postwar partitions and the wars of independence to Indigenous rights activism and post-colonial memory, this volume offers new insights into the history and legacies of human rights, self-determination, and empire to the present day.

ABOUT THE EDITORS

A. Dirk Moses, University of Sydney

A. Dirk Moses is Professor of Modern History at the University of Sydney. He is Senior Editor of the Journal of Genocide Research.

Marco Duranti, University of Sydney

Marco Duranti is Senior Lecturer in Modern European and International History at the University of Sydney. He is the author of The Conservative Human Rights Revolution (2017).

Roland Burke, La Trobe University, Victoria

Roland Burke is Senior Lecturer in World History at La Trobe University. He is the author of Decolonization and the Evolution of International Human Rights (2010).

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction. Human rights, empire, and after Roland Burke, Marco Duranti and A. Dirk Moses

Part I. Anti-colonial struggles and the right to self-determination:

1. Seeking the political kingdom: universal human rights and the anti-colonial movement in Africa Bonny Ibhawoh

2. Decolonizing the United Nations: Anti-colonialism and human rights in the French Empire Marco Duranti

3. The French Red Cross, decolonization, and humanitarianism during the Algerian War Jennifer Johnson

4. Connecting indigenous rights to human rights in the Anglo settler states: Another 1970s story Miranda Johnson

5. Privileging the Cold War over decolonization: The US emphasis on political rights Mary Ann Heiss

Part II. Post-colonial statehood and global human rights norms:

6. Cutting out the ulcer and washing away the incubus of the past: genocide prevention through population transfer A. Dirk Moses

7. Codifying minority rights: postcolonial constitutionalism in Burma, Ceylon, and India Cindy Ewing

8. Between ambitions and caution: India, human rights, and self-determination at the United Nations Raphaëlle Khan

9. 'From this era of passionate self-discovery': Norman Manley, human rights, and the end of colonial rule in Jamaica Steven L. B. Jensen

10. Re-entering histories of past imperial violence: Kenya, Indonesia, and the reach of transitional justice Michael Humphrey

Part III. Colonial and neo-colonial responses

11. The inventors of human rights in Africa: Portugal, late colonialism, and the UN human rights regime Miguel Bandeira Jerónimo and José Pedro Monteiro

12. 'A world made safe for diversity': Apartheid and the language of human rights, progress, and pluralism Roland Burke

13. Between humanitarian rights and human rights: René Cassin, architect of universality, diplomat of French Empire Jay Winter

14. The end of the Vietnam War and the rise of human rights Barbara Keys

15. Decolonizing the Geneva Conventions: national liberation and the development of humanitarian law Eleanor Davey

16. Liberté sans frontières, French humanitarianism, and the neoliberal critique of Third Worldism Jessica Whyte.

More info here

(source: ESCLH Blog)

BOOK: Catherine FLETCHER, Diplomacy in Renaissance Rome. The Rise of the Resident Ambassador (Cambridge: University Press, 2020). ISBN: 9781107515789, £ 22.99

 

(Source: CUP)

ABOUT THE BOOK

Diplomacy in Renaissance Rome is an investigation of Renaissance diplomacy in practice. Presenting the first book-length study of this subject for sixty years, Catherine Fletcher substantially enhances our understanding of the envoy's role during this pivotal period for the development of diplomacy. Uniting rich but hitherto unexploited archival sources with recent insights from social and cultural history, Fletcher argues for the centrality of the papal court - and the city of Rome - in the formation of the modern European diplomatic system. The book addresses topics such as the political context from the return of the popes to Rome, the 1454 Peace of Lodi and after 1494 the Italian Wars; the assimilation of ambassadors into the ceremonial world; the prescriptive literature; trends in the personnel of diplomacy; an exploration of travel and communication practices; the city of Rome as a space for diplomacy; and the world of gift-giving.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Catherine Fletcher is Lecturer in Public History at the University of Sheffield. Her first book, Our Man in Rome: Henry VIII and his Italian Ambassador, was published in 2012. Catherine graduated with a first-class degree in Politics and Communication Studies from the University of Liverpool and worked for the BBC Political Unit before studying for a PhD in History at Royal Holloway, University of London. She held fellowships at the Institute of Historical Research, the British School at Rome and the European University Institute before taking up her current post in 2012. She has published widely on aspects of early modern political culture and diplomacy. Catherine is a regular media contributor and has been a guest on two editions of BBC Radio 4's 'In Our Time' among other programmes. She has been a historical adviser to the new TV production of Wolf Hall and blogs at History Matters.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

1. Rome and the rise of resident diplomacy

2. Conceptualising the resident ambassador

3. The ritual world of the curia

4. The personnel of diplomacy

5. Information and communication

6. Locating diplomacy in the city of Rome

7. 'Those who give are not all generous': the world of gifts

Conclusion

Bibliography

Index.

More information with the publisher.

(source: ESCLH Blog)

BOOK: Wolfram BUCHWITZ, Schiedsverfahrensrecht in Antike Und Mittelalter - Eine Historische Grundlegung (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2020). ISBN 978-3-412-51933-9, 60,00 EUR

 

(Source: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht)

Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht is publishing a new book on arbitration during Antiquity and the Middle Ages.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Schiedsverfahren waren auch in Antike und Mittelalter verbreitete Mittel der außergerichtlichen Konfliktlösung. Das römische Recht hat viele konzeptionelle Grundlagen gelegt, auf denen spätere Epochen aufgebaut haben. Aus dem Mittelalter stammt die Einbettung in das Verfahrensrecht. Auf diesen historischen Vorläufern beruhen selbst noch einige Grundsätze des modernen Schiedsverfahrensrechts. In diesem Buch wird ein weiter Bogen geschlagen, der erstmalig die entsprechenden Unterschiede, Gemeinsamkeiten und Entwicklungslinien aufzeigt. Dabei werden die wichtigsten epochenübergreifenden dogmatischen Fragen des Schiedsverfahrensrechts thematisiert, aber auch die in der Praxis entwickelten Vertragsformulare in die Deutung mit einbezogen. Zeitlich umfasst die Darstellung die Periode vom 1. Jahrhundert v.Chr. bis zum 13. Jahrhundert n.Chr.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Wolfram Buchwitz ist Ordinarius für Bürgerliches Recht, Römisches Recht, Historische Rechtsvergleichung und Zivilprozessrecht an der Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg und Richter am Oberlandesgericht Frankfurt.

More info here

(source: ESCLH Blog)

CALL FOR PAPERS: Critical Legal Studies – Debating the Anti-Liberal Tradition (DEADLINE: 30 August 2020)

 

(Source: Critical Legal Thinking)

We learned of a call for papers for a special dossier of the journal “The Direito e Práxis Journal” on “Critical Legal Studies: debating the anti-liberal tradition of critical legal studies”. Here the call:

The Direito e Práxis Journal, associated to the Post-Graduate Program in Law at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), invites interested scholars to submit proposals for articles to be published as part of the June 2021 dossier “Critical Legal Studies: debating the anti-liberal tradition of critical legal studies”, organized by the invited editors of the Journal, Professors André Luiz Souza Coelho, Júlia Ávila Franzoni and Philippe Oliveira de Almeida, all of them from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) Law School.

The dossier’s purpose is to encourage the publication of research on the genesis and development of Critical Legal Studies, the theoretical currents emerging from it and the possibilities for updating and applying its categories and methods to problems of today. Emerging in the early 1970s, in US law schools such as Harvard and Yale, Critical Legal Studies became one of the most cohesive and combative strands of “postmodern” critical legal thinking. Despite suffering a decline in the 1990s — due to the neoliberal backlash after the fall of the Berlin wall, that disseminated the “unique thought” and the “end of history” in law schools — Critical Legal Studies provided research strategies to the countermajoritarian currents of legal thought that remain important even today. In addition to the “retrospective rationalization” tactics of the current law, widely used by positivist dogmatics, Critical Legal Studies experimented with new ways to study the legal-political reality — such as counter-narratives, which put individuals, with their particularities and contingencies, front and center in the critical studies of Law. Led by figures such as Roberto Mangabeira Unger, Duncan Kennedy and Mark Tushnet, Critical Legal Studies proposed new strategies for thinking, teaching and practicing law, escaping, at the same time, normativist formalism and Marxian orthodoxy. Now, the spirit of Critical Legal Studies survived in currents that flourished by making use of theoretical tools developed by the crits to face realities that they did not contemplate, as is the case with Critical Race Theory (Derrick Bell , Patricia Williams, Mari Matsuda, Richard Delgado, etc.); DisCrit — Dis / ability Critical Race Theory (David J. Connor, Beth A. Ferri, Subini A. Annamma, etc.); and Critical Legal Geography (by David Delaney, Richard T. Ford, Nicholas Blomley, Mariana Valverde, Andreas P. Mihilopoulos, etc).

The dossier will accept papers and translations related to Critical Legal Studies in general (and its developments, the Critical Race Theory, DisCrit, QueerCrit, Critical Legal Geography etc.), as well as specific thinkers associated to the group (Karl Klare, Mark Kelman, Drucilla Cornell …) and their impact on critical legal thinking in Latin America. Monographic studies on specific aspects related to influences, controversies, research methodologies and combat strategies employed by crits will also be welcome. And, finally, the call also aims at giving greater visibility to research that, using these methodological tools and many others correlated (colonial [anti? counter? post?] thinking, political ecology, social reproduction theory, for example, which, from the 1970s to the present day, were experimented with by Critical Legal Studies and its ramifications), seeks to reflect on the scenario in which we live now — marked by the covid-19 pandemic as a total social event, which intersects, and often accelerates, other harmful processes, such as the climatic emergency, the rise of right-wing populism, necropolitics and the precarization of labor.

Papers in Portuguese, English or Spanish will be accepted.

Abstracts should be sent to ejc.fndufrj@gmail.com in the format described below until August 30th. Proposals accepted for development will receive consideration from the editors, and the full papers must be delivered until December 15th, 2020.

Proposals must contain:

• Authors’ name, e-mails, qualifications and institutional links.

• A summary of a maximum of 1,000 words clearly indicating the object of the work, its hypotheses, the method that will be used in the development of the research, the expected conclusions and the contribution of the research to the field.

Timetable:

1. Call for papers: June 2020

2. Deadline for Abstracts: August 30, 2020

3. Feedback from Editors: until September 30

4. Deadline for Articles: December 15, 2020

5. Publication: June 2021

After receiving the final versions of the papers, there will be a round of evaluations of the manuscripts and return to the authors for final corrections.

(Read more on Critical Legal Thinking)

(source: ESCLH Blog)

BOOK: Yves BRULEY & Thierry LENTZ (dir.), Diplomaties au temps de Napoléon (Paris: CNRS Editions, 2014), 376 p. ISBN 9782271082763

(image source: Fondation Napoléon)

Summary:

Cet ouvrage reprend les actes du colloque « Diplomates et diplomatie au temps de Napoléon » du 25 et 26 mars 2014, organisé par la Fondation Napoléon et l’Académie des Sciences morales et politiques, en collaboration avec les Archives diplomatiques, le Souvenir napoléonien et l’Association de commémoration du Bicentenaire de la Campagne de France 1814-2014. Au vu des guerres menées par l’Empereur, le rôle de la diplomatie et des diplomates à l’époque napoléonienne peut paraître marginal. Il n’en est rien : pour Napoléon, la guerre était bien la continuation de la politique. Du traité de Campo-Formio à celui de Tilsit, des accords territoriaux aux traités de commerce, les diplomates furent des acteurs essentiels de l’action extérieure du Consulat et de l’Empire. Si la question de la continuité ou de la rupture de la diplomatie napoléonienne avec celles de l’Ancien régime et de la Révolution française se pose d’emblée, celle de la contradiction entre l’idée de puissance, la volonté de paix, le désir de gloire, d’une part, et la nécessaire régulation de la vie internationale, d’autre part, est révélatrice d’ambiguïtés qu’il convient d’examiner. Qui animait la politique diplomatique et avec quels moyens ? Plus concrètement, quelle influence réelle eurent les cinq ministres des Relations extérieures – Reinhard, Talleyrand, Champagny, Maret et Caulaincourt – ou les chevilles ouvrières – la Besnardière, Hauterive, Bignon, etc.- face à la volonté de Napoléon lui-même ? Quelle était la conception du « droit international » de l’empereur et en quoi heurtait-elle ou se conformait-elle aux idées du temps ? Peu abordée par les historiens, la place de la diplomatie dans la politique impériale est révélée ici dans toute sa dimension.

(source: Fondation Napoléon)

PODCAST: The Congress of Vienna (BBC In Our Time, 19 OCT 2017)

(image source: BBCFour)

Description:

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the conference convened by the victorious powers of the Napoleonic Wars and the earlier French Revolutionary Wars, which had devastated so much of Europe over the last 25 years. The powers aimed to create a long lasting peace, partly by redrawing the map to restore old boundaries and partly by balancing the powers so that none would risk war again. It has since been seen as a very conservative outcome, reasserting the old monarchical and imperial orders over the growth of liberalism and national independence movements, and yet also largely successful in its goal of preventing war in Europe on such a scale for another 100 years. Delegates to Vienna were entertained at night with lavish balls, and the image above is from a French cartoon showing Russia, Prussia, and Austria dancing to the bidding of Castlereagh, the British delegate. With Kathleen Burk Professor Emerita of Modern and Contemporary History at University College London Tim Blanning Emeritus Professor of Modern European History at the University of Cambridge and John Bew Professor in History and Foreign Policy at the War Studies Department at King's College London Producer: Simon Tillotson.

Listen here.

BOOK: Patrice GUENIFFEY & Thierry LENTZ (eds.), La Fin des Empires [Tempus] Historiques] (Paris: Perrin, 2017), 480 p. ISBN 9782262069681, € 10

(image source: Lisez)

Summary:

L’histoire est-elle condamnée à se répéter ? Cette question fameuse mérite particulièrement d’être posée concernant la naissance et la chute des Empires. Depuis l’Antiquité, certaines contrées, par le fer, l’or et l’esprit, se hissent au rang de puissance prépondérante et dominent une large partie du monde. Pourtant, selon l’adage fameux de Jean-Baptiste Duroselle, « tout empire périra » pour des raisons diverses même si un noyau dur d’explications peut être appliquée dans presque tous les cas : crises de croissance notamment en matière d’intégration, paupérisation économique, épuisement du modèle militaire et naturellement apparition et renforcement de rivaux. Pour la première fois, des historiens de renoms, spécialistes dans leurs domaines respectifs, racontent et analysent avec brio le déclin et la chute des grands « Empires qui ont fait le monde », de Rome à Washington en passant par la Chine, l’Empire des Steppes, Byzance, l’Espagne, le grand Empire de Napoléon, l’Autriche-Hongrie, la Russie, le IIIème Reich… et bien d’autres.

On the editors:

Directeur de la Fondation Napoléon, Thierry Lentz s’est affirmé comme le meilleur connaisseur actuel de l’époque impériale, comme en témoigne sa Nouvelle histoire du Premier Empire en quatre volumes (2002-2010). Il a récemment publié chez Perrin Le Congrès de Vienne. Une refondation de l’Europe 1814-1815 et Les vingt jours de Fontainebleau. La première abdication de Napoléon 31 mars-20 avril 1814, Waterloo et une biographie de Joseph Bonaparte. Professeur à l’EHESS, Patrice Gueniffey a notamment publié Le nombre et la raison (1993), La politique de la Terreur, Essai sur la violence révolutionnaire (2000). Le 18 Brumaire, L’épilogue de la Révolution française (2008) et son Bonaparte (2013) ont été universellement salués par la critique. Il a depuis dirigé les meilleurs historiens dans l’ouvrage collectif à succès Les derniers jours des rois chez Perrin et Le Figaro (2014) et vient de publier son très attendu « Napoléon et De Gaulle. Deux héros français ». 

(source: Perrin)

JOURNAL: Revista de Direito Internacional - Brazilian Journal of International Law [Focus Section History of International Law] XV (2018), nr. 3

(image source: uniCEUB)

Editorial - What does it mean to apply history in international law studies? (Arthur Capella Giannattasio)

Brazilian literature on international law during the empire regime. Or the diffusion of international law in the peripheries through appropriation and adaptation (Airton Ribeiro da Silva Júnior)

Abstract:
This essay attempts to understand the profile of Brazilian textbooks on international law published during the Brazilian Empire (1822-1889), in order to comprehend which doctrines and influences can be traceable in the Brazilian legal literature. In this sense, the article focused on the entanglements between Western and Brazilian knowledge, privileging the conception of moderation between cultures rather than unilateral imposition or reproduction - interpretations that eventually prevails on the study of diffusion of knowledge in legal history. The research revealed that all of the three textbooks that had been published during the Imperial political regime (1851, 1867, 1889) shared, in general, the same characteristics: all of them had been written by professors of the Faculty of Recife, they were all prepared to serve as textbooks to the discipline of international law, and the three books followed the Droit des Gens Moderne de l’Europe written by the German jurist Johann Ludwig Klüber. In fact, the very first book of international law published in Brazil, written by Pedro Autran da Matta Albuquerque, is an abridged translation of Klüber’s book. The history of the discipline and the bibliography of international law in nineteenth-century Brazil had been neglected; the present essay modestly attempts to fulfil this gap narrating the diffusion of international law from an extra-European standpoint.

Natural, positivo, romano e universal? Investigação sobre o direito das gentes em Tomás de Aquino (Rafael Zelesco Barretto)

Abstract:

O artigo busca sintetizar o pensamento de Tomás de Aquino sobre o direito das gentes, a partir de uma leitura contextualizada das passagens em que tal autor o menciona. Trata-se de uma instância intermediária entre os direitos natural e positivo, determinada pelos institutos repetidos entre os diversos povos. A hipótese de trabalho, que se pensa haver comprovado no texto, é que o direito das gentes tomista não é mera herança do direito romano, inserindo-se coerentemente no pensamento jurídico do autor da Suma, com sua marca típica de universalidade. O trabalho foi desenvolvido em quatro partes: a primeira resume a teoria jurídica do Aquinate. A segunda mapeia o direito das gentes no texto da Suma Teológica. A terceira parte faz a análise textual e contextual, reservando-se apartados para o Tratado da Lei, o Tratado da Justiça e as fontes, sobretudo de juristas romanos, empregadas pelo Aquinate. Tal análise será comparada com as conclusões de outros historiadores do pensamento jusinternacionalista a respeito, o que permitirá ressaltar certas nuances da postura do teólogo medieval.

The (Un)practical Secularization Process: International Law and Religion as Social Realities (Douglas De Castro)

Abstract:

The long debate about separation of International law and religion might be traced since the Peace of Westphalia. However, empirical evidence shows that not only both have been closely connected ontologically but instrumental to each other to realize their objectives. This article applies the tenets of the social theory propagation approach: phenomenology and rhetoric to identify the links between international law and religion in history to identify the dialectic existence between them, and how unpractical is secularization as “preached” by mainstream academic considering the social realities experienced in both fields.

Sur la nature du droit islamique (Hocine Benkheira)

Abstract:

L’expression « droit musulmans » ou « droit islamique » pourrait laisser croire à l’existence d’un modèle juridique universel. Dans notre contribution nous cherchons à souligner certaines spécificités du système institutionnel de l’islam, comme par exemple le fait que le rôle central est joué non par le juge, mais par le juriste ou mufti. C’est ce fait qui empêche la subordination du système juridique au système politique. Il en est autrement de nos jours alors que la plupart des pays musulmans ont adopté un modèle d’inspiration occidental.

Islamic Shariʿa Law, History and Modernity: Some Reflections (Suleiman A Mourad)

Abstract:

In the last two centuries, Muslim modernists have introduced major legal reforms that led to the restriction of the range and scope of Islamic Shariʿa Law and the overhaul of legal thought and practice in the Muslim World. Nevertheless, every time a new legal reform is proposed, it is met with outcries from Islamists who label it un-Islamic and blasphemy against God. This paper examines some major premodern scholars of Islamic jurisprudence whose thought and practice about Shariʿa Law featured tremendous flexibility in the way they understood their role as legislators and accepted a diversity of rules. The paper shows how important Islamic history is for a proper understanding of Islamic Shariʿa Law, which accommodates change and constant interpretation

(this issue results from the call for papers, which was distributed earlier on this blog)

Read all articles in open access here.

JOURNAL: Perceptions du Congrès de Vienne: répercussions d'un événement européen (XIXe-XXIe siècle) (Herta Luise OTT & Eric LEROY du CARDONNOY (dir.)) Austriaca n° 84-85 (2015), ISBN : 979-10-240-0945-2, € 50

(image source: PURH)

Description:

Ce numéro double, qui constitue la seconde partie d’un projet consacré à la mémoire du congrès de Vienne (voir no 79, 2014), s’attache notamment à comprendre sa réception, celle de ses activités et de ses résultats dans des pays précis dont la plupart ont souvent été ignorés parce qu’on les a considérés comme des pays de second ordre. À bien des égards éclipsés lors des négociations viennoises, ils en ont néanmoins subi les conséquences. L’ouvrage aborde ainsi des questions d’histoire régionale et nationale en donnant la parole à des spécialistes des pays concernés. Les contributions offrent à la fois un panorama politique, historique, historiographique et culturel sur la question.

On the journal:

La revue Austriaca, Cahiers universitaires d’information sur l’Autriche, a été fondée en 1975 par Félix Kreissler, alors maître de conférences à l’université de Rouen, et un groupe de chercheurs spécialisés dans la recherche sur l’Autriche ou l’Europe centrale. Au fil des années, tous les spécialistes reconnus de l’Autriche ont été intégrés au comité de rédaction de la revue, signe d’une volonté de pluridisciplinarité et de fédérer les spécialistes reconnus de l’Autriche quel que soit leur lieu de rattachement universitaire. Aujourd’hui parmi le comité de rédaction sont représentées à côté de quatre universités parisiennes, celles de Bordeaux III, d’Amiens, de Cergy-Pontoise, de Rouen, point d’ancrage de la revue depuis sa fondation. La cooptation de nouveaux membres donne lieu au sein du comité de rédaction à de longues discussions sur la qualité des travaux et les capacités des collègues à s’investir réellement au service de la revue. Ce comité de rédaction décide des orientations de la revue, des thèmes à traiter. Tout au long de son histoire, la revue a laissé place à de jeunes chercheurs ou chercheuses ou à des collègues venant d’horizons différents ainsi qu’à ceux des États d’Europe centrale et orientale dont le passé les lie à l’Autriche. Austriaca paraît deux fois par an et a retenu depuis sa fondation le principe du cahier thématique. Ces cahiers depuis la fin des années 1990 ont tendance à devenir de plus en plus volumineux, dépassant parfois les 300 pages, néanmoins la moyenne se situe autour de 200 pages. L’allemand et le français sont les deux langues de la revue, des articles en anglais ont cependant été publiés.

List of contributors:

Michael Bregnsbo, Michal Chvojka, Sieglinde Cora, Pedro Alfonso de Diego González, Lucile Dreidemy, Irène Herrmann, Stephan Laux, Hannes Leidinger, Éric Leroy du Cardonnoy, Álvaro Fleites Marcos, Reiner Marcowitz, Herta Luise Ott, Alfred Prédhumeau, Marie-Pierre Rey, Jorge Martins Ribeiro et Anne Sommerlat.

Read the press release here.

BOOK: Michael BECKER, Kriegsrecht im frühneuzeitlichen Protestantismus Eine Untersuchung zum Beitrag lutherischer und reformierter Theologen, Juristen und anderer Gelehrter zur Kriegsrechtsliteratur im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert [Spätmittelalter, Humanismus, Reformation; 103] (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2017), XV + 455 p. ISBN 978-3-16-155362-2, € 89

(image source: Mohr Siebeck)

Abstract:

Das 16. und 17. Jahrhundert ist für die Völkerrechtsgeschichte von besonderer Bedeutung. Aufgrund der spanischen Expansion in der Neuen Welt und der konfessionellen Konflikte in Europa wurden völkerrechtliche Fragen kontrovers diskutiert. Während der römisch-katholische Anteil des Völkerrechtsdiskurses bereits Gegenstand zahlreicher Untersuchungen wurde, ist der protestantische Beitrag zur Genese und Ausdifferenzierung des frühneuzeitlichen Völkerrechts weitgehend unbekannt. Michael Becker befasst sich daher mit den Werken protestantischer Theologen, Juristen und anderer Gelehrter, die sich zu Fragen des Völkerrechts geäußert haben. Anhand von spezifischen Problemstellungen aus dem Bereich des Kriegs- und Bündnisrechts (religiöse Offensiv- und Verteidigungskriege, Bündnisse zwischen unterschiedlichen Konfessionen) zeigt er, dass protestantische Gelehrte den Völkerrechtsdiskurs mitgeprägt haben. Die Arbeit wurde mit einem Preis des wissenschsftlichen Beirats zum Reformationsjubiläum ausgezeichnet.

(source: Mohr Siebeck)

ARTICLE: Valentina VADI, 'International Law and Its Histories: Methodological Risks and Opportunities' (Harvard International Law Journal LVIII (2017), No. 2, 311-352

(image source: Harvard International Law Journal)

Abstract:

The history of international law has recently come to the forefront of legal debate. Broadly defined as the field of study that examines the evolution of public international law and investigates state practice, the development of given legal concepts and theories, and the life and work of its makers, in recent years, the history of international law has attracted growing attention. Despite this flourishing, the history of international law is still in search of a proper methodology. Two cultures of writing compete in the making of international legal history: a “historians’ history” and a “jurists’ history.” While historians are interested in the past for its own sake and put legal history in context, lawyers tend to be interested in the past for its effects on the present. The existence of, and sometimes competition between, these two methodologies raises an important question: should international legal historians confine themselves to choosing between these two methodologies, or should they be free to adopt a comprehensive and interdisciplinary stance? This Article aims to address this question and investigate the methodological risks and opportunities of writing the histories of international law.

Read the full article here.

BOOK: Moshe HIRSH and Andrew LANG (eds.), Research Handbook on the Sociology of International Law [Research Handbooks in International Law] (Cheltenham: Elgar, 2020), 464 p. ISBN 978 1 78347 448 6, 162 GBP

(image source: Elgar)

Abstract:

Bringing together a highly diverse body of scholars, this comprehensive Research Handbook explores recent developments at the intersection of international law, sociology and social theory. It showcases a wide range of methodologies and approaches, including those inspired by traditional social thought as well as less familiar literature, including computational linguistics, performance theory and economic sociology. The Research Handbook highlights anew the potential contribution of sociological methods and theories to the study of international law, and illustrates their use in the examination of contemporary problems of practical interest to international lawyers.

On the editors:

Moshe Hirsch, Von Hofmannsthal Professor of Law, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel and Andrew Lang, Chair of International Law and Global Governance, School of Law, University of Edinburgh, UK

Contributors:

 W. Alschner, F.M. Bohnenberger, R. Buchanan, K. Byers, S. Cho, D. Desai, S. Dothan, J.L. Dunoff, S. Frerichs, B.G. Garth, M. Hirsch, R. James, C. Joerges, N. Lamp, A. Lang, M.R. Madsen, K. Mansveld, G. Messenger, M.A. Pollack, S. Puig, G.A. Sarfaty, D. SchneiderW. Alschner, F.M. Bohnenberger, R. Buchanan, K. Byers, S. Cho, D. Desai, S. Dothan, J.L. Dunoff, S. Frerichs, B.G. Garth, M. Hirsch, R. James, C. Joerges, N. Lamp, A. Lang, M.R. Madsen, K. Mansveld, G. Messenger, M.A. Pollack, S. Puig, G.A. Sarfaty, D. Schneiderman, W.G. Wernerman, W.G. Werner

(source: Elgar)

JOURNAL: Grotiana, Volume 41 (2020): Issue 1 (Jun 2020)

(Source: Brill)

We learned of the publication of the latest issue of Grotiana. Here the table of contents:

Hugo Grotius’s Views on Consent, Contract and the Christian Commonwealth – Introductory Remarks
By: Wim Decock, pp. 1-12

Grotius’s Doctrine of Alliances with Infidels and the Idea of Respublica Christiana
By: Orazio Condorelli, pp. 13-39

The Binding Force of Unilateral Promises in the Ius Commune before Grotius
By: Giovanni Chiodi
Pages: 40–58

Grotius’s Impact on the Scandinavian Theory of Contract Law
By: Sören Koch, pp. 59-87

Grotius’s Contract Theory in the Works of His German Commentators: First Explorations
By: Paolo Astorri, pp. 88-107

Making Use of the Testimonies: Suárez and Grotius on Natural Law
By: Sydney Penner, pp. 108-136

Vitoria, Suárez, and Grotius: James Brown Scott’s Enduring Revival
By: Mark Somos and Joshua Smeltzer, pp. 137-162

Consent and the Ethics of International Law Revisiting Grotius’s System of States in a Secular Setting
By: Christoph Stumpf, pp. 163-176

Nicolaus Ignaz Königsmann: Natural Law in Prague Before 1752
By: Ivo Cerman, pp. 177-197

Admired Adversary: Wrestling with Grotius the Exegete in Cotton Mather’s Biblia Americana (1693–1728)
By: Jan Stievermann, pp. 198-235

Territorial Sovereignty: A Philosophical Exploration, written by Anna Stilz
By: Tom Sparks, pp. 237-245

Hugo Grotius’ Remonstrantie of 1615. Facsimile, Transliteration, Modern Translations and Analysis, written by David Kromhout and Adri Offenberg
By: Joke Spaans, pp. 246-250

Die politischen Gesetze des Mose: Entstehung und Einflüsse der politia-judaica-Literatur in der Frühen Neuzeit, written by Markus M. Totzeck
By: Sina Rauschenbach, pp. 251-254


More information with Brill.

(source: ESCLH Blog)

ARTICLE: Ignacio DE LA RASILLA, 'Concepción Arenal and the place of women in modern international law' (Tijdschrift voor Rechtgeschiedenis/Revue d'Histoire du Droit/The Legal History Review LXXXVIII (2020), nr. 1-2, 211-253)

(image source: Brill)

Abstract:

This article examines the long-forgotten first book-length treatise on international law ever published by a woman in the history of international law. The first part places Concepción Arenal’s Ensayo sobre el Derecho de gentes (1879) in the historical context of the dawn of the international legal codification movement and the professionalisation of the academic study of international law. The second part surveys the scattered treatment that women as objects of international law and women’s individual contributions to international law received in international law histories up to the early twentieth century. It then draws many parallels between Arenal’s work and the influential resolutions of the first International Congress of Women in 1915 and surveys related developments during the interwar years. The conclusion highlights the need of readdressing the invisibility of women in international legal history.

Read the full article on Brill's website.

VIDEO: Mikael RASK MADSEN on the spread of international courts

(image source: Carlsberg Foundation)

Mikael Rask Madsen (iCourts) presents the evolution of international courts in an instructive video on the Carlsberg Foundations website. 

See here.

(source: Florenz Volkaert)