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.

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.

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

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

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.

What Should International Legal History Become?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martti Koskenniemi
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
International Law ◽  
Legal History ◽  
International Politics ◽  
The State ◽  
Private Law ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of International Law ◽  
International Power ◽  
Professional Fields

This chapter argues that the scope of history of international law ought to be expanded beyond its received sense. If the interest lies in ‘power’, then it is not a surprise why international lawyers might worry about the state of their field. For history to grasp this worry, it should illuminate the process through which some things come to be understood as belonging to ‘international law’ while others are relegated to ‘domestic’ or ‘private’ law, to ‘political economy’ or indeed to ‘international politics’. A study of international law’s relations to international power would need to include an examination of the way such categories, professional fields, and intellectual distinctions are made and remade so as to determine what may seem possible to achieve and what is beyond professional argument and contestation.

Beyond Anachronism: Histories of International Law and Global Legal Politics

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Benton
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Legal History ◽  
Legal Study ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of International Law ◽  
Historical Methods ◽  
Cambridge School

Abstract This article presents a critique of recent writings, mainly by Anne Orford, of historical methodologies in international law as supposedly focused on rooting out anachronism and separating history from the politics of the present. First, the article shows that this (mis)characterization of historical methods is based on a misreading of the work of Quentin Skinner and the Cambridge School. Second, it argues that Orford errs in assuming that the Cambridge School is representative of historical approaches. The article exposes this error by tracing key strands of socio-legal study of global legal history. That literature has generated new insights about such topics as vernacular discourses of international law and the influence of patterns of colonial politics on global ordering. This new global legal history takes ‘legal politics’ as its object of analysis while merging the study of praxis and theory in the history of international law.

scholarly journals African International Legal Histories – International Law in Africa: Perspectives and Possibilities

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 897-914 ◽  
Author(s):  
JAKOB ZOLLMANN
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Legal History ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
First Century ◽  
International Borders ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
State Succession ◽  
History Of International Law ◽  
Sea Area

AbstractHitherto, the ‘African part’ of the history of international law has often been limited to the (critical engagement with) ‘the acquisition of Africa’ since the 1880s and questions of ‘state succession’ and international borders following independence starting in the 1950s. In this historical narrative, the dominance of colonialism is evident. It seems that ‘Africa’ as a narrative concept in international legal history remains tied to abstract contrasts such as ‘foreign domination’ versus ‘independence’, or ‘exploitation’ versus ‘development’. However, if twenty-first century writings about ‘international law in Africa’ and its histories remain shaped by this perspective, historians may lose sight of issues, questions, or ideas formed in historical Africa that do not fit into this preconceived dichotomous matrix. After discussing methodological challenges, this article asks for other ‘contacts’, other arenas of ‘internationality’ and international law in Africa’s pre-colonial past. These contacts reach back very far in history. Three arenas are mentioned: the Red Sea area and Ethiopian-Arab relations; the Indian Ocean rim; and finally, the case of nineteenth-century Ethiopia.

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