ESIL ANNUAL CONFERENCE MANCHESTER - PRE CONFERENCE EVENT : Non-European experiences with the law of nations in comparative perspective (Manchester, 13 Sep 2018)

(image source: Travelodge)

The path from the European law of nations to a universal system of international law has attracted wide scholarly attention in the past decade. A variety of approaches have challenged the narrative of a European system that simply expands and covers most of the planet in the late 19th century. For example, scholars identifying with the TWAIL movement (Third world approaches to international law) have criticized modern international law as a product of western imperialism and colonialism. Building from this critique, other scholars have begun to ask how non-European conceptions and influences shaped and re-formed the European law of nations on its path towards becoming a global system. How can we read non-European jurists, lawyers, state leaders and peoples as producers, not just consumers, of international law?

Politicians, lawyers and activists from non-European countries are now seen as more than mere vessels through which the tradition of the European law of nations was stamped into new contexts. Rather, scholars now explore the impact of local elites in shaping the way international law was received into their regions. But to what extent were they successful in shaping international law as a whole? We need a stronger analytical framework to explore the broader picture and a more precise understanding of how each region’s or nation’s encounter with international law shaped both their own experience and aspects of the international system. 

After a double blind peer review-process, the ESIL Interest Group History of International Law selected the following papers:

Prof. dr. Ako Nakai (Kyoto University, Kyoto): Latin American International Law as the First Regional International Law: The First Step of Irreversible Relativisation of European International Law

Discussant: Frederik Dhondt (VUB/UAntwerpen)

dra. Lys Kulamadayil (Graduate Institute, Geneva): Fairy-Tale International Law


Discussant: Markus Beham (Passau University)

Dr. Oleksandr Vodyannikov (OSCE): Forgotten Europe’s Borderland: the Rise and Fall of Indigenous System of ius gentium intermariae (X – XVII centuries) and postcolonial histories of Eastern Europe

Discussant: Jan Lemnitzer (Southern Denmark University)

The Steering Committee warmly invites all members and conference attendants to join us for the discussion.

Steering Committee
Jan Lemnitzer (president)
Markus Beham
Martin Clark
Frederik Dhondt
Hossein Piran

 More information (including registration) on the ESIL Conference's main page.