DOI 10.1163/15718050-bja10090
Abstract:
What are the legal principles of British utilitarianism in the long nineteenth century; and what conception(s) of international law do they offer? The celebrated founder of the utilitarian school is Jeremy Bentham, who categorically rejects all metaphysical natural law thinking by insisting that all positive law ought to be adopted by a legislature. But in the absence of a world legislature, what did this mean for the positivity and normativity of international law? Surprisingly, Bentham and a second generation of utilitarian thinkers can affirm the legally binding nature of international law; yet with John Austin, a radical ‘sovereigntist’ critique subsequently casts doubt over the nature of international law as law ‘properly so called’. This infamous scepticism would have a profound impact on British international thought in the twentieth century; yet in the nineteenth century, the ideas of a third-generation utilitarian became more prominent: the liberal philosophy of John Stuart Mill. Mill’s ‘relativist’ and ‘civilisational’ conception of international law thereby gave the utilitarian project a specifically imperialist dimension that will be analysed, both in its utilitarian-philosophical and practical-legal dimensions. The article however also explores two other legacies of British utilitarianism, namely: the rise of international codification and the emergence of a specifically British conception of private international law during the nineteenth century.
Unequal Treaty in Practice: A Story about Article 23 of the Treaty of Tientsin (Shiu Chung Chan)
DOI 10.1163/15718050-12340231
Abstract:
Despite the wealth of research on cross-border activities between China proper and Hong Kong, little has been discussed about the ‘civil fugitives’ who fled from one side to the other during Hong Kong’s early colonial period. Chinese debtors who absconded to China created jurisdictional problems for Hong Kong. The addition of Article 23 in the Treaty of Tientsin was an attempt to solve this issue, and this article explores what the discussions on Article 23, particularly those from 1905 to 1907 among British colonial officials and diplomatic agents, reveal about the characteristics of colonial jurisdiction under international law. In this case, colonial jurisdiction was limited solely to the territory of Hong Kong. Proposals to amend Article 23 attempted to remove the territorial barrier and establish personal jurisdiction for the colonial government in Hong Kong, similar to extraterritorial rights in Qing China.
Gender, Human Rights Networks, and the State of Emergency During the Arab Revolt (1936–1939) (Paola Zichi)
DOI 10.1163/15718050-bja10105
Abstract:
Contrary to the current literature on the British state of emergency during the 1936–1939 Arab revolt, that sees women as victims of counterinsurgency policies or the differential objects within national-military cultures, this article argues that Palestinian women played an active role in fostering the rise of early human rights networks, and highlights how the politics of race and gender-based violence marked an embedded dimension of the imperial and colonial political authority and practice. By focusing on the emotional and divisive question of Palestine during the Arab Revolt, and using gender as a polyhedric tool of analysis, the article aims to show the centrality of gender and women’s activism in forging and grasping technologies of colonial emergency governance as tools of resistance to colonial violence. It enriches current histories of international law and adopts a critical feminist intersectional approach.
Book reviews
State Responsibility and Rebels: The History and Legacy of Protecting Investment against Revolution, written by Kathryn Greenman (Filip Batselé)
Read more here.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.