Revisiting the expansion thesis: international society and the role of the Dutch East India company as a merchant empire

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 1230-1248
Author(s):  
Kevin Blachford
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
International Society ◽  
East India Company ◽  
Western World ◽  
Dutch East India Company ◽  
Critical Approach ◽  
Sovereign Equality ◽  
State Actor ◽  
Merchant Empires

This paper breaks new ground by looking at the role played by merchant empires, such as the Dutch East India Company (VOC), in shaping European interactions with the non-Western world. It offers a critique of the English School’s state-centric narrative of the expansion of international society by looking to how the VOC and its expansion in Asia influenced developments within Europe. As a non-state actor, the VOC developed networks of trade and power, which were intertwined with the Dutch struggle against Iberian hegemony. As this paper shows, the development of international law, sovereign equality and European international society needs to be understood as being constituted through these colonial encounters. Looking to the VOC as a merchant empire presents a more nuanced approach to the expansion narrative that recognises that states, empires and early modern companies developed in a co-evolutionary manner. This critical approach calls for the recognition of international society as an ongoing process formed by the contestation of hybrid cultures.

Insulae Moluccae: Map of the Spice Islands, 1594

2018 ◽  
pp. 247-258
Author(s):  
Kate Miles
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Regulatory Framework ◽  
East India Company ◽  
Dutch East India Company ◽  
Historical Approach

This chapter explores the role of maps in international law as deeply political forms of communication. It argues that the act of mapping is a mode of constructing orders and controlling space, capturing the inhabitants of mapped territories within the regulatory framework of the map. With this in mind and taking an historical approach, the chapter examines ‘the map’ as an instrument of empire, considering the entwining of power, commerce, imperialism, and international law. That exploration is conducted through the lens of one map of particular significance—Insulae Moluccae, a map of the Spice Islands by Petrus Plancius, cartographer for the Dutch East India Company, and employs legal and art historical frames of analysis to consider the role of art and image in international law.

Ciceronian international society

2019 ◽  
pp. 175508821989578
Author(s):  
Stephen Patrick Sims
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Law ◽  
International Society ◽  
Natural Law ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Valuable Resource ◽  
Future Thinking ◽  
International Theory ◽  
Political Thinker

This article explores what Cicero as a political thinker can offer to the study of international relations. Although previous readings of Cicero have emphasized his Stoic influences and his natural law teaching as the basis of a cosmopolitan world society, I emphasize the way in which Cicero can deepen the concept of international society. International society relies on certain norms and institutions to function properly, such as international law, sovereignty, and the use of war to restrain violence and redress injustice. We find all these concepts articulated clearly in Cicero’s moral and political thought. Cicero also shows the limits of these institutions and norms, explaining why none of them is absolute. Finally, Cicero adds to our theorizing about international society by drawing attention to the role of honor, ruling, and inequality in international society. As such, classical political thought, and Cicero’s in particular, provide a valuable resource for future thinking about international theory.

scholarly journals State Consent and Disagreement in International Law-Making. Dissolving the Paradox

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 289-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
SAMANTHA BESSON
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Legal Positivism ◽  
Legitimate Authority ◽  
Political Equality ◽  
Reasonable Disagreement ◽  
Democratic State ◽  
Sovereign Equality ◽  
State Consent ◽  
Law Making

AbstractThis article starts with a paradox: international law-making is ridden with reasonable disagreement and yet no state can be bound by international law without its consent and hence without agreement. Breaking away from the pragmatic resignation that prevails among international law scholars on this question, the article proposes an interpretation of the role of state consent that both fits and justifies its central role in the practice of international law-making and, hopefully, strengthens the latter's legitimacy in the future. Its proposed justification actually lies in the circumstances of reasonable disagreement among democratic states and this proposal dissolves the paradox. The article argues that, in international law as it is the case domestically, consent is neither a criterion of validity of law nor a ground for its legitimate authority. It also dispels two myths about state consent: its necessary relationship to legal positivism and state sovereignty. Instead, the article argues, the role of democratic state consent is that of an exception to the legitimate authority of international law and hence to its bindingness in a concrete case. While the legitimacy of international law is not democratic, the democratic nature of states and their democratic accountability to their people matter. This is especially the case in circumstances of widespread and persistent reasonable disagreement as they prevail among democratic states in international law-making. In these circumstances, respecting the sovereign equality of democratic states by requiring their consent is the way to grant an equal voice to their people. Of course, there are limits to the democratic state exception that are inherent to both its democratic dimension (it requires respecting basic political equality) and its consensual dimension (it requires that consent is expressed in a free, fair and informed fashion). The article concludes by showing how the proposed disagreement-attuned account of democratic state consent explains various characteristics of the main international law-making processes, i.e., treaties and custom.

scholarly journals Evolution and content of the principle of peaceful settlement of international disputes in International Law

KPGT_dlutz_1 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 164-180
Author(s):  
Igor Anisimov ◽  
Elena Gulyaeva
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Dispute Resolution ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Legal Analysis ◽  
Legal Study ◽  
Sovereign Equality ◽  
Peaceful Settlement ◽  
Domestic Jurisdiction ◽  
Settlement Evolution

This article introduces a brief outline of the inter-State conflict types. The evaluation considers the principle of peaceful disputes’ settlement evolution from antiquity to the present based on the legal analysis of historical and international legal sources. The article looks at the content of this principle and a comparative legal study of peaceful dispute resolution laid down in the UN Charter and other international legal instruments. The authors conclude that the peaceful international disputes settlement is a complex, integrated principle with several interrelated elements and the content incorporated in various international legal instruments. The article highlights the vital role of appropriate freedom of States to choose the remedies of settling their disputes. This right is a corollary to two interrelated international law principles – the sovereign equality of states and non-interference in matters within their domestic jurisdiction.

Pride and Prejudice: The Role of Policy and Perception Creation in the Chinese Revolt of 1652 on Dutch Formosa

Itinerario ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 17-36
Author(s):  
Marné Strydom
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
East India Company ◽  
Pride And Prejudice ◽  
Dutch East India Company ◽  
Economic Success ◽  
Colonial Society ◽  
History Of ◽  
Dutch Colonial

The events of September 1652 on the island of Formosa were one of the bloodiest chapters in the history of Dutch management of the island, and could arguably be viewed as one of the most severe suppressions of a rebellious group in the seventeenth century. The unexpected, ill-prepared uprising of thousands of frustrated, angry and impoverished Chinese farmers and field hands against Dutch colonial management were successfully, yet in the most severe and savage way, suppressed through a military collaboration between the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and the local Aborigines of the island. In total some 3,000 Chinese residents of the island were killed, the ‘hacked-off’ head of the leader ‘displayed on a stake […] to frighten the Chinese as a sign of victory over those dastardly traitors’, while three of his lieutenants were tortured to death by Company officials in an effort to extract confessions and information from them. Indeed severe action towards a section of the Formosan colonial society that was primarily responsible for the economic success of the Dutch settlement enterprise.

International Law within a Global International Society

2019 ◽  
pp. 90-102
Author(s):  
Andrew Hurrell
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
International Society ◽  
Western World ◽  
The West ◽  
International Rule

This chapter is a comment on Felix Lange’s analysis of the universalization of international law from a historical-contextual perspective. Building on Lange’s arguments the comment underscores and develops further three specific themes, all of which are of ongoing relevance: the importance of mutual constitution in the relations between the West and the non-West; the need to look ‘beyond membership’; and the agency of the non-Western world. It concludes by returning to the idea of the international rule of law and the ways in which our understanding of the universalization of international law and the international rule of law may be related and brought together.

Sovereign Equality of States in the System of Basic Principles of International Law

10.12737/3457 ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (5) ◽  
pp. 5-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Олег Тиунов ◽  
Olyeg Tiunov
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
The State ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
Sovereign Equality ◽  
Grand Total ◽  
The United Nations

In the article have defined of the role of the principle of the sovereign equality of the states in the system of the principles of international law. The contemporary of the signs of the sovereign equality became aparent the grand total of the development of the international law. Its substance development was under the influence of the different history formations. The Charter of the United Nations there is the basic document of the contemporaneity in which has sealed the principle of the sovereign equality of the states as the part of the system of the principals the modern international law. The legal signs of the sovereignty appears on the supreme sovereignty within the limits of the state, and they must be independence of the state in the international relations. The basic principles of international law there are interdependence. They must be conform to the context each other.

On Financial Nationalism and International Law: Sovereignty, Cooperation and Hard/Soft Governance in International Finance

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonardo Borlini
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
International Finance ◽  
International Governance ◽  
Critical Approach ◽  
Systemic Risks ◽  
Soft Governance ◽  
And Control ◽  
Cooperative Venture ◽  
Prevailing View

Abstract The prevailing view among legal scholars over the last decade is that international financial collaboration is a resolutely cooperative venture that cannot be reduced to the interests or relative power of individual states. Moving along this line, the book under review shows that the protection of financial nationalism contributes to the creation of global systemic risks. In this review essay, I discuss the three overarching themes addressed in the book – namely, the logic of financial nationalism, the role of soft and hard law in the international governance of finance and the related problem of compliance. International financial law is still emerging as a discipline and the issues under discussion are at the heart of the ongoing debate about how to devise adequate international structures and international norms to govern markets and control systemic risks in finance. Proceeding from a critical approach to the international law of finance, I analyse the book’s focus on financial nationalism and the limits of its juxtaposition with the economic logic of externalities; the case for strengthened formalization; and, finally, the extent to which the theoretical framework proposed in the book is relevant for rethinking the logic and prospect of compliance in international finance.

scholarly journals Revisiting the Role of Anti-Circumvention Provisions under the wto Agreement: Lessons for East Asia

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-163
Author(s):  
Tomohiko Kobayashi
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
International Law ◽  
Economic Integration ◽  
International Society ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
International Agreements ◽  
Comprehensive Approach ◽  
Legitimate Interests

“Circumvention” is a growing challenge to the effectiveness of international law as the incentive to circumvent laws grows as the “legalization” of international society continues. This analysis on the anti-circumvention provisions within the wto Agreement reveals a lack of clarity and coherence in the existing disciplines. Ongoing negotiations to modify trade rules also do not fully address these concerns. Therefore, this article proposes that there is a need for a comprehensive approach consisting of amendment, coherent interpretation, use of general principles, and functional reallocation for the wto Agreement to address circumvention more effectively. In particular, to establish an efficient legal framework for economic integration in East Asia, this article notes that the priority in improving and clarifying anti-circumvention disciplines is to strike multi-dimensional balances between legitimate interests, including those between sovereign liberty and the effectiveness of international agreements, and those between the predictability of obligations and the effectiveness thereof.

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