BOOK: Martti KOSKENNIEMI, To the Uttermost Parts of the Earth: Legal Imagination and International Power 1300–1870 (Cambridge: CUP, 2021). ISBN 9780521768597, 74.99 GBP

 

(Source: CUP)

CUP is publishing ‘To the Uttermost Parts of the Earth: Legal Imagination and International Power 1300–1870’

ABOUT THE BOOK

To the Uttermost Parts of the Earth shows the vital role played by legal imagination in the formation of the international order during 1300–1870. It discusses how European statehood arose during early modernity as a locally specific combination of ideas about sovereign power and property rights, and how those ideas expanded to structure the formation of European empires and consolidate modern international relations. By connecting the development of legal thinking with the history of political thought and by showing the gradual rise of economic analysis into predominance, the author argues that legal ideas from different European legal systems - Spanish, French, English and German - have played a prominent role in the history of global power. This history has emerged in imaginative ways to combine public and private power, sovereignty and property. The book will appeal to readers crossing conventional limits between international law, international relations, history of political thought, jurisprudence and legal history.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Martti Koskenniemi, University of Helsinki

Martti Koskenniemi is Professor of International Law at the University of Helsinki. His works on the theory and history of international law are studied by lawyers, historians and international relations scholars across the world. He has held visiting professorships at many leading universities and he is Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy and a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

1. Legal Imagination in a Christian World – Ruling France, c. 1300

2. The Political Philosophy of jus gentium – the Expansion of Spain, 1524–1559

3. Italian Lessons – ius gentium and Reason of States

4. The Rule of Law – Grotius

5. Governing Sovereignty – Negotiating French 'Absolutism' in Europe, 1625–1715

6. Reason, Resolution, Restoration – European Public Law, 1715–1804

7. Colonies, Companies, Slaves – French dominium in the World, 1627–1804

8. The Law and Economics of State-Building – England, c. 1450–c. 1650

9. 'Giving Law to the World – England, c. 1635–c. 1830

10. Global Law – Ruling the British Empire

11. A Science of State-Machines – ius naturae et gentium as a German Discipline, 1500–1758

12. The End of Natural Law – German Freedom, 1734–1821

Epilogue.

 

More info here