The Gentle Civilizer of Nations

Abstract

International law was born from the impulse to 'civilize' late nineteenth-century attitudes towards race and society, argues Martti Koskenniemi in this extensive study of the rise and fall of modern international law. In a work of wide-ranging intellectual scope, now available for the first time in paperback, Koskenniemi traces the emergence of a liberal sensibility relating to international matters in the late nineteenth century, and its subsequent decline after the Second World War. He combines legal analysis, historical and political critique and semi-biographical studies of key figures (including Hans Kelsen, Hersch Lauterpacht, Carl Schmitt and Hans Morgenthau); he also considers the role of crucial institutions (the Institut de droit international, the League of Nations). His discussion of legal and political realism at American law schools ends in a critique of post-1960 'instrumentalism'. This book provides a unique reflection on the possibility of critical international law today.

Designing the model European—Liberal and republican concepts of citizenship in Europe in the 1860s: The Association Internationale pour le Progrès des Sciences Sociales

“…81 As they had always been critical to the republican quest to dismember the unity of citizenship, state and nationhood, they now argued to internationalize discussions on citizenship by restricting the findings and government influence to highly selective elites of lawyers. 82 They saw themselves as benevolent and guiding fathers of the unprofessional 'masses.' The establishment of the highly influential Revue de Droit International and the Institut de Droit International in 1869 and 1873 respectively stemmed directly from those legal scholars which had been active in the SSA and the ISSA since 1858/1859.…”

Sovereignty as irresponsibility? A Realist critique of the Responsibility to Protect

“…56 This leads to a critical understanding of the role of the UN and international law, which 'were imagined as substitutes for power politics -while in fact they were simply new forums for it'. 57 In short, Morgenthau's theory of International Relations stemmed from the belief that 'what really mattered in relations among nations was not international law but international politics'. 58 The primacy of politics over law in International Relations is illustrated by the fact that 'the functioning of sanctions in international law is .…”

International Law as Language—Towards a “Neo” New Haven School

“…4 In other words, the discourse system of international law is governed by the same core rules as the system of politics. For these skeptics, international law is yet another way in which the power politics of mainly Western nations are practiced and superficially justified.…”