BOOK: Sebastian M. SPITRA, Die Verwaltung von Kultur im Völkerrecht. Eine postkoloniale Geschichte [Studien zur Geschichte des Völkerrechts, eds. Anne PETERS, Bardo FASSBENDER, Milos VEC & Jochen VON BERNSTORFF; 39] (Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlag, 2021), 409 p. ISBN 978-3-8487-5375-8. OPEN ACCESS

 

(image source: Nomos)

Book abstract:

This book analyses the development of the norms of protecting cultural heritage from a postcolonial perspective. In contrast to the traditional historiography of ‘culture’ in international law, it reveals how the highly problematic and Eurocentric ‘standard of civilisation’ in the 19th and 20th centuries served as a driving force for the formation of cultural heritage protection norms. Various actors used the law in different ways to take part in this discourse on ‘civilisation’. The aim of this book is to lay down a new narrative on the history of the protection of world cultural heritage. It endeavours to replace the inherent politics of the dominant narrative on progress with a critical genealogy which reveals the long-lasting hegemonic structures of today’s international law. Sebastian M. Spitra is a research fellow at the Department of Legal and Constitutional History at the University of Vienna and a Grotius fellow at the University of Michigan Law School.

 Read the book in open access: DOI 10.5771/9783845295145. 

BOOK SYMPOSIUM: Ntina TZOUVALA, Capitalism as Civilisation (with Rohini SEN, Daniel R. QUIROGA-VILLAMARIN, Jullie WETTERSLEY, Kanad BAGCHI)

(image source: EUI)

Ntina Tzouvala's Capitalism as Civilisation (see earlier on this blog) is at the heart of an open access book symposium with the European Journal of Legal Studies, including a response by the author herself.

Kanad Bagchi, ‘Materialism, Culture and the Standard of Civilization’ (61-79) 

Julie Wetterslev, ‘The Standard of Civilisation in International Law’ (81-99) 

Daniel R. Quiroga-Villamarín, ‘Victorian Antics: The Persistence of the “Law as Craft” Mindset in the Critical Legal Imagination’ (101-116) 

Rohini Sen, ‘Reading and Readings of Capitalism as Civilisation‘ (117-136) 

Ntina Tzouvala, ‘Capitalism as Civilisation, or How to Respond to your Book Reviews when the Author is Dead’ (137-153) 

Read everything on the journal's website. 

OPEN ACCESS: OUP History of International Law Collection

 

(image source: OUP)

Description:

Explore our collection of free content on the history and development of international law, sourced from across our academic books and online reference works. Covering classical antiquity to the twenty-first century, this selection covers both useful introductions and in-depth commentary on a variety of topics in the field. All articles and chapters featured are free to access until 31 July 2021.

 Read all here.

ARTICLE: Ntina TZOUVALA, "The Specter of Eurocentrism in International Legal History" (Yale Journal of Law & The Humanities XXXI (2021), No. 2, 413-434 (OPEN ACCES)

(image source: Yale)

First lines:

The honeymoon period of the “turn to history” in international law did not last long. On the surface everyone agreed that the past of the discipline remained under-examined and under-theorized. Additionally, few (if any) international legal scholars still believed in the most extreme versions of linear, progressivist narratives that imagined (international) law to be part and parcel of “the long march of mankind from the cave to the computer.”2 Nevertheless, important methodological differences persisted.

Read the full article here. 

ARTICLES: Henri DE WAELE & Janne NIJMAN on international legal history (EJIL XXXI (2020), Issue 3)

(image source: OUP)

A New League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? The Professionalization of International Law Scholarship in the Netherlands, 1919–1940 (Henri de Waele) (open access)

Abstract:

Despite the historical turn in the study of public international law and the advance of comparative approaches, still too little attention is paid nowadays to specific national traditions. This holds, inter alia, for the scholarly views and practices in the Netherlands during the first half of the 20th century. This article seeks to shed light on the experiences here at the advent of the League of Nations and its tentative ‘new world order’. Offering a meso-level analysis, it portrays the leading protagonists during the 1920s and 1930s, aiming to provide a snapshot of how their discipline and activities underwent an unexpectedly swift professionalization. This process is perceived to have run along three distinct vectors – academic, societal and diplomatic/bureaucratic – which are each examined in turn. Novel opportunities stemming from the rise of the international judiciary, especially the two Permanent Courts established on Dutch soil, are looked at separately. The research delivers a greater insight into the inter-war era and the challenges faced by (academics from) smaller nations, enabling us to situate underexplored local experiences within a global frame, and offering useful lessons for (the writing of) international law history more generally.

Marked Absences: Locating Gender and Race in International Legal History (Janne Nijman) (open access)

Abstract: 

This article was sparked by a critical reading of Henri de Waele’s article ‘A New League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? The Professionalization of International Law Scholarship in the Netherlands, 1919–1940’, and aims to offer an alternative perspective on this period in the history of Dutch international legal scholarship. While it appreciates the author’s examination of Dutch international law scholarship during the interwar period and concurs with the idea that this scholarship needs to be examined more closely, it argues that doing history today requires us first to raise ‘the woman question’, especially in the context of the so-called ‘professionalization’ of international law in the 1920s and 1930s, and second to include Dutch colonialism as an important backdrop to the work of the interwar international law scholars. I will give some pointers and illustrations to support this argument. The specific Dutch material brought to bear aims to show more generally the importance of questioning rather than reproducing traditional historiography, within which ‘the woman question’ and ‘the colonial question’ were left unmentioned. As such this article also deals with the issue of expanding and remaking international legal history as an issue of present and future purport

RESEARCH GUIDE: Eliav LIEBICH, How to Do Research in International Law? A Basic Guide for Beginners (Harvard International Law Journal LXII (2021), OPEN ACCESS)

 

(image source: Wikimedia Commons)

First paragraph:

So, you want to do research in international law? Good choice. But it can be difficult, especially in the very beginning. In this brief guide for students taking their first steps in legal research in international law, I will try to lay down the basics—just enough to nudge you towards the rabbit-hole of research. This guide is about how to think of and frame research questions, primary sources, and secondary sources in the research of international law. Or, to be precise, it is about how I think about these things. It is not about how to write in the technical sense, how to structure your paper, or about research methods (beyond some basic comments). This guide also focuses mostly on questions that are especially pertinent when researching international law. For this reason, it does not address general questions such as how and when to cite authorities, what are relevant academic resources, and so forth.

(read further here) 

BOOK: Christoph WAMPACH, Armed Reprisals from Medieval Times to 1945 [Studien zur Geschichte des Völkerrechts, 40] (Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlag, 2020), 336 p. ISBN 978-3-8487-7718-1, OPEN ACCESS

 

(image source: Nomos)

Book presentation:

Since the 19th Century, armed reprisals escaped the efforts of regulation, despite at that time being a burning issue in international law. Why was this? Beginning with the law of reprisals in Medieval Times and its progressive obsolescence in Modern Times, this study demonstrates that the great Powers made a privilege out of this employment of force in peacetime and kept it in a legal grey zone. This enabled them to resort to armed reprisals against small States without incurring the consequences of a formal war. The work also explains the legal scholars’ hesitant attitude to clarify these armed reprisals and shows why the League of Nations failed to solve the problem.

Download the book here.

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.

JOURNAL: Special Issue Histoire du droit international, ed. R. CAHEN, F. DHONDT & E. FIOCCHI MALASPINA] (Clio@Thémis: revue européenne électronique d'histoire du droit/European Electronic journal in Legal History n° 18 (2020)

(image source: Clio@Thémis)

L’essor récent de l’histoire du droit international (Raphaël Cahen, Elisabetta Fiocchi Malaspina & Frederik Dhondt)
First paragraph:

Ce dossier spécial est consacré à l’histoire du droit international. Il regroupe sept contributions portant sur divers aspects de cette sous-discipline de l’histoire du droit qui connaît un essor historiographique majeur dans le monde, mais plus relatif en France [1]. En effet, aucune section ne portait sur l’histoire du droit international dans l’ouvrage collectif récent qui présentait les tendances actuelles et les nouveaux champs de l’histoire du droit en France [2]. Néanmoins, on ne peut omettre de mentionner les travaux d’Emmanuelle Tourme-Jouannet, de Dominique Gaurier ou encore ceux de Dzovinar Kévonian et Philippe Rygiel qui font exception dans un champ académique français relativement peu fréquenté ni institutionnalisé [3].

Between private and public law : The contribution of late medieval ius commune to the conceptualisation of diplomatic representation (Dante Fedele)
Abstract:

This paper examines the development, by late medieval ius commune jurists, of a notion of diplomatic representation which is rooted in the doctrine of private law agency. In particular, it endeavours to study the basis and limits of ambassadors’ negotiating powers, by analysing some issues relating to procuration and the ratification of treaties. The conclusion illustrates the persistence of the central role of this notion of diplomatic representation in the discussion of the matter right up until the late eighteenth century, thus allowing us to appreciate the importance of the contribution made by late medieval ius commune to the early modern discussion of the status of the ambassador.

Renonciations et possession tranquille : l’abbé de Saint-Pierre, la paix d’Utrecht et la diplomatie de la Régence (Frederik Dhondt)
Abstract:

Abbot Saint-Pierre (1658-1743) is one of the most studied early 18th century political thinkers. His “utopian” project of perpetual peace was published during the Utrecht Peace Congress (1712-1713), where plenipotentiaries from various European powers ended the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714). As Merle Perkins demonstrated, Saint-Pierre’s conceptions on the state of nature and man’s violent instinct were similar to Hobbes’. Saint-Pierre, by contrast, believed in the possibility to overcome the violent state of nature. The key element here was the freezing of reciprocal legal claims by monarchs, which were always a source of conflict. Leaving quarrels behind, the “European Union” would be able to ensure the “tranquil possession” of sovereigns. The diplomatic context after the Peace of Utrecht was more compatible with his position than his first version (1712), wherein he castigated balance of power-politics. The peace was based on the mutual renunciations by the most prominent pretenders to the Spanish Succession. Saint-Pierre redacted the 1717 edition of his Projet to convince the Regent’s diplomats. Their efforts focused on finding a solution for the duchies of Parma and Piacenza, and the Grand-Duchy of Tuscany. The context of Regency diplomacy explains the attempts of Saint-Pierre to deliver a credible message, able to convince the actors of French foreign policy. 

Hauterive et l’école des diplomates (1800-1830) (Raphaël Cahen)
Abstract:

Alexandre d’Hauterive (1754-1830) was one of the most important members of the French foreign Office, from the time of the Directoire until the July Monarchy. Although one of the founders of a school of diplomats, which lasted until his death, d’Hauterive remains remarkably understudied in historiography. His diplomatic academy maintained an ambiguous relation with the law of nations. Despite numerous efforts and proposed projects, the diplomatic profession never fully professionalized during the thirty years of the academy’s existence. A biographical case-study of three former students of this school, all of whom eventually rose to the presidency of the Litigation committee of the French Foreign Office, will be used to analyse the Juridification of international relations.

 « Toil of the noble world » : Pasquale Stanislao Mancini, Augusto Pierantoni and the international legal discourse of 19th century Italy (Elisabetta Fiocchi Malaspina)
Abstract:

The aim of this article is to reconstruct, from a legal historical point of view, the complexity and the meaning of international law in the Italian peninsula during the 19th century. The paper will analyse different entanglements that constituted the core of nineteenth-century Italian international legal discourse. It is structured in four sections, dealing respectively with : 1) the principle of nationality elaborated by Pasquale Stanislao Mancini and its repercussion both on private and public international law ; 2) the return to the historical origins of Italian international law and the role played by comparative constitutional law ; 3) the implementation and translation of particular legal genres, such as the attempts to codify international law ; 4) colonial education, including legal education, through the creation of the Scuola diplomatico-coloniale (colonial and diplomatic school).

After the Great War : International Law in Austria’s First Republic, 1918–mid 1920 (Sebastian M Spitra)
Abstract:

This article studies the role of international law in the Austrian republic after the First World War – a time of hope and concerns for the international legal order. Although the war was perceived as backlash for international law, its scholarship expanded in Austria until the mid-1920 s. The Austrian international lawyers strived to integrate themselves in the broader transnational academic community. Their contribution to this field developed out of the constitutional debates of the Habsburg Empire. However, the Austrian jurists also omitted to treat certain international issues in their scholarship, such as the relief program by the League of Nations for Austria’s economy in crisis

Historiographies of International Law from a Chinese Perspective (Maria Adèle Carrai)
Abstract:

One objective of the emerging global history of international law is to broaden its scope in an attempt to overcome Eurocentrism. In this context, China, not only as an emerging global power that can influence the creation of the normative principles grounding the future world order, but also with its history of international law, offers a counter-teleology to the classic progress narrative of international law understood as a science. This article presents a critical summary and analysis of the approaches of a selection of Chinese scholars to the history of international law. The current debates seem to be closely linked to a new conception of modernity that does not correspond with the Western conception. The Chinese perspective, in this sense, can help broaden the history of international law, especially when that history claims to be global. 

Comment et pourquoi écrire l’histoire du droit international ? Le cas de l’abolition de l’esclavage (Anne-Charlotte Martineau)
Abstract:

Over the last decade, there have been debates opposing international lawyers on the one hand, and historians and legal historians on the other, on how and why to write the history of international law. The objective of this article is to participate in these debates through a case study : that of the abolition of slavery and its inclusion in the historiography of international law. The history of slavery and in particular that of its abolition has aroused renewed interest within the discipline of international law. Some international lawyers have turned to history in order to draw lessons from the successful ways in which international law ought to have abolished the transatlantic slave trade in the nineteenth century. Others have examined the history of the codification of slavery in international law in the light of European colonial imperialism. It will emerge from our analysis that international lawyers’ renewed interest in the history of slavery is rooted in the present, in the sense that they want to better understand the past in order to better act in the present. This presentism is not a problem in itself ; it becomes a problem only when the recourse to history ceases to be critical and serves merely to justify – and thus to perpetuate – existing professional projects and international legal institutions. 

 Read all articles in open access here.

BOOK: Stefano ANDRETTA, Stéphane PÉQUIGNOT and Jean-Claude WAQUET (eds.), De l'ambassadeur: les écrits relatifs à l'ambassadeur et à l'art de négocier du Moyen Âge au début du XIXe siècle [Collection de l'École française de Rome, 504] (Rome: École française de Rome, 2015) 650 p. ISBN 978-2-7283-1093-7, OPEN ACCESS

This work was announced first on 8 October 2015 on this blog, more than four years ago. It is now available in open access.

(image source: École française de Rome)

The École française de Rome published a collective work on diplomatic writing.

Abstract:

Consacré aux écrits relatifs à l’ambassadeur et à l’art de négocier, ce livre suit au fil d’une vingtaine d’études le long et multiforme travail d’élaboration auquel la figure de l’ambassadeur et l’art de la négociation ont donné lieu, de la genèse de nouvelles formes d’organisation politique à la fin du Moyen Âge jusqu’à l’émergence de la profession diplomatique à la fin du XVIII^e siècle et au XIX^e siècle. Certains des textes examinés, comme les traités de legatis ou le Guide de Martens, présentent une dimension théorique ou pédagogique. D’autres sont des écrits littéraires, des instruments juridiques ou des actes de la pratique où se lit, de façon plus ou moins incidente, une réflexion sur les envoyés diplomatiques et l’art qu’ils mettaient en œuvre. Qu’ils aient été composés pour accréditer une fonction, défendre des privilèges, forger des modèles de comportement ou transmettre à de futurs praticiens les leçons de l’expérience, ces textes montrent comment, des docteurs médiévaux aux professeurs du XIX^e siècle, en passant par les humanistes et les négociateurs du Grand Siècle, la figure de l’ambassadeur et les règles de son art ont été sans cesse construites et reconstruites. Aussi, à travers l’étude de ce vaste corpus, ce livre invite à un parcours dans les savoirs de la diplomatie, de l’ambaxiator médiéval aux lendemains du Congrès de Vienne.

On the editors:

- Stefano Andretta, ancien chercheur au CNR et à l’Université Rome I « La Sapienza », est actuellement professeur titulaire d’histoire moderne et d’histoire des États italiens pré-unitaires à l’Université Rome III (Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici).

- Stéphane Péquignot, agrégé d’histoire, ancien élève de l’École Normale Supérieure et ancien membre de la Casa de Velázquez, est docteur en histoire et maître de conférences à l’École Pratique des Hautes Études (Paris).

- Jean-Claude Waquet, ancien élève de l’École des Chartes et ancien membre de l’École Française de Rome, a été professeur aux Universités de Strasbourg et Paris 12. Il est directeur d’études à l’École Pratique des Hautes Études (Paris).

Table of contents here.

Introduction available here.

(source: École française de Rome)

FREE ACCES: Taylor & Francis E-Books

(image souce: Wikimedia Commons)

Taylor&Francis/Routledge offers free access to its e-books for the duration of the COVID19-crisis.

A selection for legal history can be found here.
A selection for international law can be found here.
A selection for comparative law can be found here.
A selection for legal theory can be found here.

SYMPOSIUM: AJIL Ubound on Prosper Weil's Analysis of Normativity (OPEN ACCESS)

(image: Prosper Weil; Source: Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques)

The American Journal of International Law has published a symposium on Prosper Weil's famous article 'Towards Relative Normativity in International Law' ? (1983).

The introduction by Karen Knop can be found here.
The contribution of Pierre-Marie Dupuy is here.
The contribution of José E. Alvarez is here.
The contribution of Paola Gaeta is here.
The contribution of Monica Garcia Salmones-Rovira is here.
The contribution of John Tasioulas is here.
The contribution of Sienhoo Yee is here.

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: Morten BERGSMO & Emiliano J. BUIS (eds.), Philosophical Foundations of International Criminal Law: Correlating Thinkers (Brussels: TOAEP, 2018), ISBN 978-82-8348-117-4; OPEN ACCESS

(Source: Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher)

We learned of the online publication of an open access book on philosophical foundations of international criminal law.

ABOUT

The 'Publication Series' is the oldest publication series of the Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher (TOAEP). Prior to volume No. 30, it was called 'FICHL Publication Series'. Several books in this series originate in academic seminars organised by CILRAP. Unsolicited texts are subjected to peer review. The printed versions of the books are distributed through the normal channels and the e-books are made freely available through this web page (with the indicated persistent URL which you can use in citations as it is permanent). Reviews of books in the Publication Series are available here. 

Philosophical Foundations of International Criminal Law:Correlating Thinkers

PURL: http://www.toaep.org/ps-pdf/34-bergsmo-buis

Table of contents: http://www.toaep.org/ps-pdf/34-bergsmo-buis

The book can be ordered in hardcover here

More information here

(source: ESCLH Blog)

BOOK: Fabian KLOSE, "In the Cause of Humanity". Eine Geschichte der humanitären Intervention im langen 19. Jahrhundert [Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für Europäische Geschichte Mainz; 256] (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2019), 516 p. 978-3-525-37084-1, OPEN ACCESS

(image source: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht)

Introduction:

Im Jahr 2000 veröffentlichte der damalige UN-Generalsekretär Kofi Annan anlässlich der Jahrtausendwende einen Bericht, in dem er die Rolle der Vereinten Nationen und die Herausforderungen für die Weltorganisation im beginnenden 21. Jahrhundert eingehend thematisierte. Seine umfangreichen Ausführungen, die sich von Fragen der Globalisierung, der weltweiten Armutsbekämpfung, der Friedenssicherung, des nachhaltigen Umweltund Klimaschutzes bis hin zu Strukturreformen der UN-Organisation selbst erstreckten, waren als Anregungen und Empfehlungen an die UN-Mitgliedsstaaten für den anstehenden Millenniumsgipfel gedacht, um dort gemeinsam Antworten auf drängende Probleme der Gegenwart und Zukunft zu finden. Die Durchsetzung universaler Menschenrechte war für Annan in diesem Zusammenhang von zentraler Bedeutung, und entsprechend plädierte er nachdrücklich für eine Verbesserung der dafür vorgesehenen internationalen Schutzmechanismen. Die dabei vorgeschlagenen neuen Strategien implizierten neben der Errichtung des Internationalen Strafgerichtshofs und der allgemeinen Stärkung des humanitären Völkerrechts auch das Konzept der humanitären Intervention, also die direkte, in letzter Konsequenz auch gewaltsame Einmischung von außen in die inneren Angelegenheiten eines souveränen Staates zum Schutz humanitärer Normen

Read the whole book for free here.

BOOK: Simone ZURBUCHEN (ed.), The Law of Nations and Natural Law 1625-1800 [Early Modern Natural Law; 1] (Leiden/Boston: Martinus Nijhoff/Brill, 2019), ISBN 978-90-04-38420-0. OPEN ACCESS, 26 SEP 2019

(image source: Brill)

Book abstract:

The Law of Nations and Natural Law 1625-1800 offers innovative studies on the development of the law of nations after the Peace of Westphalia. This period was decisive for the origin and constitution of the discipline which eventually emancipated itself from natural law and became modern international law. A specialist on the law of nations in the Swiss context and on its major figure, Emer de Vattel, Simone Zurbuchen prompted scholars to explore the law of nations in various European contexts. The volume studies little known literature related to the law of nations as an academic discipline, offers novel interpretations of classics in the field, and deconstructs ‘myths’ associated with the law of nations in the Enlightenment.

Table of contents:
Introduction 
  Simone Zurbuchen 

Part 1 
Teaching the Law of Nations 
1 Natural Law for the Nobility? The Law of Nature and Nations at the Erlangen Ritterakademie (1701–1741) 
  Katharina Beiergroesslein and Iris von Dorn 
2 Serving Danish Foreign Policy: Andreas Hojer’s De eo quod iure belli licet in minores (1735) 
  Mads Langballe Jensen 
3 The Law of Nations at the Naval Academy in Copenhagen around 1800: the Lectures of Christian Krohg 
  Thor Inge Rørvik 
4 The Law of Nations in German historia literaria and Encyclopaedias in the Eighteenth Century 
  Frank Grunert 

Part 2 
The Law of Nations from the Peace of Westphalia to the Enlightenment 
5 Pufendorf on the Law of Sociality and the Law of Nations 
  Kari Saastamoinen 
6 The International Political Thought of Johann Jacob Schmauss and Johann Gottlieb Heineccius: Natural Law, Interest, History and the Balance of Power 
  Peter Schröder 
7 Men, Monsters and the History of Mankind in Vattel’s Law of Nations 
  Pärtel Piirimäe 
8 Guarantee and Intervention: the Assessment of the Peace of Westphalia in International Law and Politics by Authors of Natural Law and of Public Law, c. 1650–1806 
  Patrick Milton 

Part 3 
The Law of Nations and the ‘École romande du droit naturel’ 
9 Born to Rule: Burlamaqui and Rousseau on the Education of Princes 
  Lisa Broussois 
10 Defining the Law of Nations: the École romande du droit naturel and the Lausanne Edition of Grotius’ De jure belli ac pacis (1751–1752) 
  Simone Zurbuchen 
11 Vattel’s Doctrine of the Customary Law of Nations between Sovereign Interests and the Principles of Natural Law 
  Francesca Iurlaro 
12 The Circulation of the École romande du droit naturel in Eighteenth-Century Italy 
  Elisabetta Fiocchi Malaspina 

(source: Brill)

OPEN ACCESS: Book Series Studien Zur Geschichte des Völkerrechts (Nomos)

(image source: Nomos)

The peer-reviewed book series Studien zur Geschichte des Völkerrechts (Baden-Baden:Nomos Verlag) has decided to publish its most recent volumes, from 2016 on, in open access.

The books listed below can be downloaded in PDF, for free:

Ruth Lambertz-Pollan, Auf dem Weg zu Souveränität und Westintegration (1948-1955). Der Beitrag des Völkerrechtlers und Diplomaten Wilhelm Grewe (vol. 34) (ISBN 9783845272504)

Abstract:

Wilhelm Grewe (1911-2000) begann seine Karriere als Völkerrechtler im Dritten Reich. Bereits während der frühen Nachkriegsjahre setzte er sich für eine juristische Regelung der Beziehungen zwischen Deutschland und den Besatzungsmächten ein, bevor ihm Konrad Adenauer 1951 die Verhandlungen für den „Deutschlandvertrag“ übertrug.Diese Fallstudie, die erste umfassende Arbeit über Wilhelm Grewe, untersucht, welchen Einfluss er in den Jahren 1948-1955 als Berater auf die Verhandlungen über die westdeutsche Souveränität und Westintegration der Bundesrepublik ausübte. Sie zeigt insbesondere, wie die tagtäglichen Arbeits- und Entscheidungsprozesse auf der Arbeitsebene konkret abliefen. Hinterfragt wird auch Grewes Handlungsspielraum auf nationaler und internationaler Ebene. Der wechselseitige Einfluss von Politik und Völkerrecht ist für die Bewertung seiner Rolle ein Schlüsselelement.Die Autorin ist Maître de conférences an der Universität Nantes.

Jakob Zollmann, Naulila 1914. World War I in Angola and International Law (vol. 35) (ISBN 9783845271606)

Abstract:

Die völkerrechtshistorische Studie beschäftigt sich mit den Auswirkungen des Ersten Weltkriegs in Deutsch-Südwestafrika (Namibia) und Angola.

Dante Fedele, Naissance de la diplomatie moderne, XIIIe-XVIIe siècles. L'ambassadeur au croisement du droit, de la morale et de la politique (vol. 36) (ISBN 9783845284361)

Abstract:

The author investigates the birth of modern diplomacy. Drawing on a wide-ranging body of textual materials dealing with the ambassador from the 13th to the 17th century, he analyses how that figure was developed within a complex constantly renewed field of interaction between law, ethics and politics, where theory and practise are intertwined in an unresolved dialectical interaction. The first part examines how the legal status of the ambassador was shaped during the late Middle Ages and how this process influenced early-modern scholarship on diplomacy. The second part investigates how the emergence of the modern State both reinvigorated and reshaped the scholarly approaches to the different themes linked to the figure of the ambassador. The third part proposes an account of how the professional status of the ambassador developed within the examined body of literature. Through the prism of these approaches, diplomacy appears as a foundational matrix of modern political rationality.

Julia Schreiner, Neutralität nach "Schweizer Muster"? Österreichische Völkerrechtslehre zurimmerwährenden Neutralität, 1955–1989 (vol. 37) (ISBN 9783845284750)

Abstract:

Permanent neutrality – a chance or more a burden for a young nation?In 1955 Austria gained back its sovereignty with signing the State Treaty of Vienna. Before that, Austria took over the obligation of becoming a permanent neutral state in the Moscow Memorandum.This study focuses on the efforts of Austrian politics, science and people to position the country in Europe and in the United Nations within the framework of the Cold War.The analysis shows how the semantics and the functions of the permanent neutrality have changed from 1955 to 1989 and how the Austrian citizens have contemplated the neutrality of their state. Moreover the study explores the interdependency between political developments and scientific research and, as a consequence of that, the role neutrality played on a political level. The examination reveals the various definitions of neutrality and points out the significance it still has today.

Nina Keller-Kemmerer, Die Mimikry des Völkerrechts. Andres Bellos "Principios de Derecho Internacional" (vol. 38) (ISBN 9783845288604)

Abstract:

To this day, the history of international law is dominated by a Eurocentric historiography in which non-European worlds play a passive role at best. Master narratives of universalisation and progress may include their histories; however, they appear not in the form of actors, but as mere receivers.By analysing the first Hispano-American textbook on international law, this transdisciplinary study questions this narrative of passivity. In his compendium, published in 1833, the Chilean polymath Andrés Bello translated Euro-pean doctrines of international law for use in the context of the “New World”. Using a postcolonial approach, the study demonstrates that the imitation of the European discourse on international law was not a purely passive and submissive act, but deeply ambivalent behaviour which opens up a space for resistance and is reminiscent of Homi K. Bhabha’s concept of mimicry.

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