The Problem of Periodization in the History of International Law

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 275-308
Author(s):  
Ignacio de la Rasilla
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Legal History ◽  
Contemporary Literature ◽  
Normative Approach ◽  
The Third ◽  
Institutional Approach ◽  
Historical Turn ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of International Law ◽  
Sat 1

The first part of the article presents a six-tiered typology of conventional approaches to historical periodization in international law. The “hegemonic” approach, the “Eurocentric universalist” approach, the “state-centric” approach, the “intellectual doctrinal” approach, the “institutional” approach, and the “normative” approach to the question of periodization of the history of international law are surveyed in turn in the light of contemporary literature. The second part examines how in the wake of the recent “historical turn” in international law a new critical historiographical wave has problematized the question of periodization because of the homogenizing effects and the “teleology of progress” to which periodization is interpreted to contribute in international legal history. The third part tackles the notion of “alternative periodization” illustrating, with examples from contemporary literature in the history of international law, its value as a launching pad for the “formation of new, formerly unknown periods,” a task that is considered “an essential part of historiographical innovation.” The conclusion elaborates on the heuristic potential of a multiperspectival approach to the study of periodization in the history of international law.Saepe stilum vertas,iterum quae digna legi sunt scripturusHor., Sat. 1, 10, 72

Concepción Arenal and the place of women in modern international law

2020 ◽  
Vol 88 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 211-253
Author(s):  
Ignacio de la Rasilla
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
International Law ◽  
Legal History ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
International Congress ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
History Of ◽  
Individual Contributions ◽  
History Of International Law ◽  
Academic Study

Summary 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.

Empires and Jurisdictional Politics

2020 ◽  
pp. 185-199
Author(s):  
Lauren Benton
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Legal History ◽  
World History ◽  
Legal Pluralism ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Political Ideas ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of International Law

The study of legal pluralism in empires has far-reaching implications for comparative legal history, world history, the history of international law, and the study of global legal pluralism. This chapter highlights three insights developed within this perspective and discusses some promising future directions for research. The first insight flows from the observation that jurisdictional politics in empires played a formative role in structuring processes of conquest and colonization. The second involves the finding that patterns of legal pluralism in empires influenced foundational legal and political ideas, in particular concepts of rights and sovereignty. A third derives from the analytical move of placing imperial legal politics at the heart of histories of global ordering. This chapter reviews each of these facets of the analysis of legal pluralism in empires to identify some critical lessons for understandings of global legal pluralism.

scholarly journals THE INTRODUCTION OF BIOTERRORISM IN MALAYSIA: A LEGAL APPROACH

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rohani Abdul Rahim ◽  
Nor Anita Abdullah
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
International Law ◽  
Legal History ◽  
Biological Agents ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Real Situation ◽  
The Public ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of International Law

The deliberate use of biological agents and the emergence of infectious diseases which can produce harm to human health and give effects to the public health and security are well recognised. A few years back, an attack of biological agents would be the most unthinkable situation to happen. However, the threat of bioterrorism is real and it is growing. It continues to be a major challenge today and the possibility of bioterrorism is undeniable as it is increasingly defined globally as ‘not if, but when’. Therefore, this paper attempts to give a brief explanation on the threat of bioterrorism as to the emergence of infectious diseases and the legal history of international law on bioterrorism. The main objective of this paper is to find out the need for bioterrorism law in Malaysian i.e. a legal approach. The study is a social legal research, which uses a qualitative approach. Thus, due to lack of materials and publications in Malaysia, in order to achieve the objectives, the methodology used was based on a semi structured interviews conducted with three respected experts in public health and security to explore the real situation in Malaysia. The authors found out that the finding of this study had established that an outbreak of infectious diseases can now be viewed as a threat that may result to bioterrorism if there is no preparation to handle it. Keywords: Bioterrorism, biological agents, infectious diseases, legal and preparedness

scholarly journals Turntablism in the History of International Law

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 472-496
Author(s):  
Jean d’Aspremont
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
New Music ◽  
First Century ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
Sound Effects ◽  
Historical Turn ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of International Law ◽  
The Many ◽  
Shed Light

Abstract This article uses the metaphor of turntablism to shed light on the confinement of international lawyers’ engagement with history to the terms, vocabularies, and categories of the very historical narratives they seek to evaluate, disrupt, or displace. For the sake of this article, turntablism is understood here as the art of creating new music and sound effects by using one or several turntables on which a record is placed. This article argues that twenty-first century international lawyers engaging with the history of international law are talented turntablists in that the many historiographical works of international lawyers produced since the so-called ‘historical turn’ have remained confined to the very terms, categories, and vocabularies of the histories whose creation they have been discoursing and theorising. This article ultimately shows that turntablism is not the inevitable fate of international lawyers engaging with history, and that a radical historical critique is possible and should be promoted.

The British Reoccupation and Colonization of the Falkland Islands, or Malvinas, 1832–1843

1990 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 261-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry M. Gough
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Legal History ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Falkland Islands ◽  
South American ◽  
The Third ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Economic Considerations

In December 1832 and January 1833 the British reoccupied the Falkland Islands or the Malvinas. This reassertion of British sovereignty began an uninterrupted period of control that lasted until 2 April 1982, when armed forces of the Republic of Argentina forced the surrender of the British governor and garrison at Stanley, the capital of what the British had come to call “The Falkland Islands Dependency.” The Argentine occupation ended with a surrender to British arms on 14 June 1982. These celebrated events of recent times brought forth a fundamental question, here addressed: Why did the British possess the islands in the first place? The British government's motivation for reoccupying the Falklands in 1832–33 is insufficiently explained in existing historical literature, though the legal intricacies are known. Julius Goebel the Younger, a student of international law, termed the contest for sovereignty of the islands a “struggle.” However, his work, a study in international legal history, was not based on strategic, maritime, and economic considerations and, moreover, did not probe the question of British motivation in reoccupation. V. F. Boyson's history of the islands is a valuable survey but it inadequately investigates the same theme and the precise period under consideration. Other histories of the Falklands written in English do not examine the matter of motivation in depth. Argentine sources are extensive and see the British reoccupation as illegal. They tend at the same time to recite the arguments for sovereignty over the Malvinas; and one Argentine historian has called the reoccupation “the third English invasion,” in reference to two previous occupations by the British in 1765 and 1771. The following inquiry seeks to rectify these matters and is based on British documents, particularly in-letters of Commanders-in-Chief on the South American station. These reports to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty reveal two concerns: firstly, the infringement by Argentine and American traders and marine exploiters in territory and territorial waters traditionally claimed but not effectively occupied by the United Kingdom and, secondly, the importance of the Falklands as a base from which to safeguard the sea routes of the southern oceans.

The Critical Attitude and the History of International Law

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-60
Author(s):  
Jean d’Aspremont
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
International Literature ◽  
Critical Attitude ◽  
Historical Turn ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of International Law

AbstractThis article questions the critical attitude that is informing the critical histories that have been flourishing since the ‘historical turn’ in international law. It makes the argument that the ‘historical turn’ falls short of being radically critical as the abounding critical histories which have come to populate the international literature over the last decades continue to be orchestrated along the very lines set by the linear historical narratives which they seek to question and disrupt. This article argues that the critical histories must move beyond a mere historiographical attitude and promotes radical historical critique in order to unbridle disciplinary imagination.

scholarly journals The turn to history in international law and the sources doctrine: Critical approaches and methodological imaginaries

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matilda Arvidsson ◽  
Miriam Bak McKenna
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Causal Relationship ◽  
Historical Turn ◽  
Critical Approaches ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of International Law ◽  
A Site ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Opening Up

AbstractExpanding now familiar debates about the impact of the ‘historical turn’ upon the field of international law, this article considers some of the different ways in which ‘turn to history’ scholars have confronted the methodological and theoretical tensions arising from the central, yet paradoxical, role occupied by the sources doctrine in international law. We suggest that the anxiety over the sources of international law as the basic methodological precepts of the discipline has been a catalyzing element for a radical reengagement with the canon of international law, one with a significant impact on the field’s existing parameters and doctrinal limits. Within the three streams of scholarship we explore here, history has become a site of creative engagement for scholars in opening up the discipline to diverse ends, one in which a new doctrinal universe can be created, and new issues, sources, subjects, and approaches can be explored. Yet, by opening up international law’s sources doctrine, reactionary causes and unjust ends may equally well be the result. This account is an attempt at diversifying the narrative surrounding the causal relationship between history and the ongoing changes to the field of international law, along with the differential practices, techniques and epistemological foundations behind the history of international law as an evolving discipline, and of the different scholarly motivations of its specialists.

Concluding Remarks. The Legacy of James Brown Scott and the Responsibilities of International Legal History

2019 ◽  
pp. 312-320
Author(s):  
Paolo Amorosa
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Legal History ◽  
Human Action ◽  
Historical Study ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Close Analysis ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of International Law

In the concluding remarks, I put forward some reflections on Scott’s legacy and the significance of his work to articulate a responsible approach to the history of international law today. The Spanish origin narrative resulted from Scott’s contingent choices, proving his agency in the reshaping of international legal history. A responsible self-understanding of the profession should acknowledge the relevance of individual and collective stances. As international lawyers we are situated political actors. Awareness of this condition should be reflected in the histories we write. Narratives of timeless principles or inevitable progress downplay the concrete role of human action in shaping of the reality we live in. The engaged and responsible historical study of international legal doctrines should instead put close analysis of practice, sociological aspects of the profession, and the social and political stakes lawyers face at its center.

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