History of International Law, since World War II

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Koskenniemi Martti
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
International Law ◽  
World War ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of International Law

History of International Law and Western Civilization

2007 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 353-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gustavo Gozzi
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
International Law ◽  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
World War ◽  
History Of ◽  
China And Japan ◽  
History Of International Law ◽  
The 19Th Century

AbstractThis paper discusses the origins 19th-century international law through the works of such scholars as Bluntschli, Lorimer, and Westlake, and then traces out its development into the 20th century. Nineteenth-century international law was forged entirely in Europe: it was the expression of a European consciousness and culture, and was geographically located within the community of European peoples, which meant a community of Christian, and hence "civilized," peoples. It was only toward the end of the 19th century that an international law emerged as the expression of a "global society," when the Ottoman Empire, China, and Japan found themselves forced to enter the regional international society revolving around Europe. Still, these nations stood on an unequal footing, forming a system based on colonial relations of domination. This changed in the post–World War II period, when a larger community of nations developed that was not based on European dominance. This led to the extended world society we have today, made up of political systems profoundly different from one another because based on culture-specific concepts. So in order for a system to qualify as universal, it must now draw not only on Western but also on non-Western forms, legacies, and concepts.

Retroactive Law and Proactive Justice: Debating Crimes against Humanity in Germany, 1945–1950

2010 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 428-463 ◽  
Author(s):  
Devin O. Pendas
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
International Law ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
World War ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Domestic Courts ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of International Law

The Nuremberg Trial may well be the most famous trial of the twentieth century, which is as it should be. After all, the Nuremberg Trial, while perhaps not as unprecedented as is frequently assumed, did mark a decisive turning point in the history of international law. It marked the first broadly successful attempt to impose the rule of law not just on the conduct of war but also, in a limited way, on domestic atrocities as well. The fame of this single trial has had the unfortunate side-effect of overshadowing the literally thousands of other Nazi trials that took place after World War II, however. These additional trials can be divided into three categories: those that took place in the domestic courts of victim nations, those that took place in occupation courts, and, perhaps least well-known, those that took place inGermancourts.

Coercion, Internalization, Decolonization

2019 ◽  
pp. 66-89
Author(s):  
Felix Lange
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
International Law ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Contextual Approach ◽  
World War ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of International Law ◽  
Historical Writings ◽  
Second World

The chapter discusses competing narratives of ‘rise’ and ‘decline’ of international law in the historical writings of international lawyers and historians. The author proposes a contextual approach to the history of international law which takes the terminology of the actors of the past seriously, but also leaves room for an assessment of functional equivalents. The author applies his contextual approach to the story of international law’s universalization. He claims that from the seventeenth century, European international law universalized via processes of forceful coercion by Western powers, internalization through non-Western states, and decolonization after the Second World War.

2. The Historical Evolution of the International Community

2020 ◽  
pp. 20-44
Author(s):  
Paola Gaeta ◽  
Jorge E. Viñuales ◽  
Salvatore Zappalà
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
International Law ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Historical Evolution ◽  
World War ◽  
History Of ◽  
Independent States ◽  
History Of International Law ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Cold War

This chapter traces the historical evolution of the international legal system, which is organized for analytical purposes in four major stages: from its gradual emergence (sixteenth–early seventeenth century) to the First World War; from the establishment of the League of Nations to the end of the Second World War (1919–1945); from the establishment of the United Nations to the end of the Cold War (1945–1989); and the last three decades since the end of the Cold War (1990–2020). The chapter emphasizes the European roots of international law but also the pressure it has faced since the 1960s to reflect the interests of developing and newly independent States. It also provides some basic historical elements and references to the growing literature on the history of international law, which are useful to understand the historical context of the material examined in subsequent chapters.

Carl Schmitt, April 1939: „Der Reichsbegriff im Völkerrecht“

Der Staat ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 455-472
Author(s):  
Dirk Blasius
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
International Law ◽  
World View ◽  
Carl Schmitt ◽  
Causal Connection ◽  
World War ◽  
European Culture ◽  
History Of ◽  
Total State ◽  
Second World

Der Artikel rekonstruiert die Geschichte von Carl Schmitts Reichsbegriff. Die historische Situation im Frühjahr 1939 hatte Einfluss auf den Weg seines juristischen Werks. Der Reichsbegriff war Thema eines Vortrags, den Schmitt in das Zentrum seiner „Völkerrechtlichen Großraumordnung“ stellte. Diese im April 1939 erschienene Publikation wurde nach Ausbruch des Krieges mehrfach ergänzt. Der Abschnitt zum Reichsbegriff blieb unverändert. Schmitt unterstützte mit seinen Beiträgen zum Völkerrecht den aggressiven Weg der NS-Politik, der zum Ausbruch des Krieges im September 1939 führte. In einem Essay vom Mai 1939 über das Reich und den Untergang der europäischen Kultur zitierte er frühere Veröffentlichungen. Sie hatten ihn zu einem neuen völkerrechtlichen Gedanken geführt. Reiche, nicht Staaten sollten Träger des Völkerrechts sein. An diesem Gedanken hielt Schmitt auch während des Krieges fest. Sein Essay ist ein Selbstportrait des Juristen Schmitt. Seine Gegner erhoben den Vorwurf mangelhafter Weltanschauung. Sie forderten eine „völkische Großraumordnung“. Im Zweiten Weltkrieg schloss sich Schmitt nicht Ereignissen an, die der Ideologie vom „Lebensraum“ Taten folgen ließen. Mit dem Begriff „Ereignisse“ wurden 1941/42 Kriegsverbrechen in den „Ereignismeldungen UdSSR“ benannt. Die Stäbe des „Reichssicherheitshauptamts“ werteten sie aus. Schmitt ließ den Zusammenhang dieser Verbrechen mit dem Typus des totalen Staats unbeachtet. The article reconstructs the history of Carl Schmitt's concept of the Reich. The historical situation in the spring of 1939 had an influence on the path of his legal work. The concept of empire was the subject of a lecture that Schmitt placed at the center of his “Völkerrechtliche Großraumordnung”. This publication, which appeared in April 1939, was supplemented several times after the outbreak of World War II. The section on the concept of empire remained unchanged. Schmitt's contributions to international law supported the aggressive course of Nazi policy before September 1939. In a May 1939 essay on the Reich and the Decline of European Culture, he cited earlier publications. They had led him to a new idea of the causal connection between empires and international law. Schmitt held on to it even during the war. His essay is a self-portrait of the jurist Schmitt. His opponents raised the accusation of a deficient world view (Weltanschauung). They demanded a "völkische Großraumordnung". In the Second World War, Schmitt did not join events (Ereignisse) that gave action to the ideology of Lebensraum. The term "Ereignisse" was used in 1941/42 to name war crimes in the "Ereignismeldungen UdSSR". The staffs of the Reich Security Main Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt) evaluated them. Schmitt ignored the connection of these crimes with the type of the total state.

Asia’s Ambivalence about International Law

2019 ◽  
pp. 15-36
Author(s):  
Simon Chesterman
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
International Law ◽  
Political Power ◽  
World War ◽  
Push Factors ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
History Of ◽  
Unequal Treaties

This chapter traces the broad history of Asia’s engagement with international law, focusing on three aspects that continue to have resonance today. First is the experience of colonialism by India and many other countries across the continent. Second, the unequal treaties of the nineteenth century and the failure to recognize the People’s Republic of China for much of the twentieth century encouraged a perception that international law was primarily an instrument of political power. Third, the trials that followed World War II left a legacy of suspicion that international law deals only selectively with alleged misconduct, leaving unresolved many of the larger political challenges of that conflict with ongoing ramifications today. The chapter then argues that Asian states’ ongoing ambivalence towards international law and institutions can also be attributed to the diversity of the region, power disparities among states, and the absence of ‘push’ factors driving greater integration.

scholarly journals EL LEGADO DE LA SOCIEDAD DE NACIONES: THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS AND THE EMERGENCE OF INTERNATIONAL ADMINISTRATION: FINDING THE ORIGINS OF INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTIONAL LAW

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (71) ◽  
pp. 285-293
Author(s):  
Richard Collins
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Institutional Design ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
World War ◽  
Institutional Governance ◽  
The First World War ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of International Law ◽  
Modern Era ◽  
First World

n contemporary reflections on the history of international law and international organization the creation of the League of Nations in the aftermath of the First World War stands as a critical dividing line between an older, pre-institutionalised era of sovereign coexistence and a modern era of cooperation, conflict resolution and institutional governance. Projecting forwards from this point, however, the legacy of the League in its somewhat short-lived existence is rather more mixed. In terms of what was clearly its primary purpose, to pacify inter-state diplomacy and put an end to the scourge of war, its overriding failure is well-known and does not need repeating here. However, in terms of the League’s contribution to the project of international organisation its contribution has been considerable and often overlooked. In fact, as Pitman Potter has claimed, the League has arguably made «a far greater contribution to the progress of international organisation than any other institution in history». Indeed, as Philippe Sands and Pierre Klein have equally commented, that it failed in its primary purpose —and, indeed, did so quite dramatically— cannot be blamed so much on its institutional design as a more profound failure of political will of those states that were tasked with making the institution work.

International Economic Law and the American Journal of International Law

2006 ◽  
Vol 100 (4) ◽  
pp. 769-782
Author(s):  
Detlev F. Vagts
Keyword(s):  
International Economic ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
International Law ◽  
Private International Law ◽  
World War ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
Economic Law ◽  
International Economic Law ◽  
History Of ◽  
Economic Warfare

To discuss the history of international economic law since the American Journal of International Law was first published in 1907 requires the author to project categories common to the parlance of 2006 back to times when theywere unknown. So far as it appears, the term did not become current until after World War II. Its scope is controversial. According to one definition, it encompasses “the total range of norms (directly or indirectly based on treaties) of public international law with regard to transnational economic relations.” A wide variety of international law rules have been said to have a financial impact somewhere. For practical purposes, in this essay I define international economic law as the international law regulating transborder transactions in goods, services, currency, investment, and intellectual property. I exclude from the inquiry issues of private international law, as well as of economic warfare.

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