Localising Civil Wars International Law, the Spanish Civil War, and the Institutionalisation of ‘Non-Intervention’ (Rémi Fuhrmann)
DOI 10.1163/15718050-12340234
Abstract:
The non-intervention policy adopted by European Powers during the Spanish Civil War is often relegated as a matter of realpolitik in which international law, if relevant at all, was only disregarded. This article posits that the non-intervention agreement (NIA) and its institutionalisation were an attempt to redefine the relationship between international law and civil war. However, the so-called non-intervention system and its underlying discourse of localisation, developed in the context of the Spanish civil war, were as much a legal innovation as they were a reactionary project subordinated to the interests and will of the powerful states. Through an ostensibly neutral international legal language which put the insurgents and the established government on the same a-legal footing in order to ‘localise’ the Spanish civil war, the discourse of localisation eventually failed in providing European powers a legal and technical escape out of the politics on the interwar period. Far from illustrating any inherent deficiency of the work of legal creativity in the context of collective security mechanisms, the exploration of the NIA rather points towards the banal and continuous problem of the monopolisation by a few states of the ability and authority to imagine and implement legal innovation.
On Creating a Space Power The United States, International Law, and the Shaping of Outer Space in the 1950s and 1960s (Eleni Ilia)
DOI: 10.1163/15718050-12340233
Abstract:
This article critically examines the early development of space law during the formative 1950s and 1960s, revealing how legal, diplomatic, and political forces converged to shape both the international governance of outer space and the emergence of the United States as the dominant space power. Moving beyond conventional narratives that celebrate space law as a triumph of multilateral cooperation, the article argues that early space law functioned as a strategic ‘world-making’ tool that constructed myths, narratives, and imaginaries that framed outer space not merely as a new physical domain but as a geopolitical canvas embodying Cold War power dynamics. Central to this process was the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), alongside key US lawyer-diplomats, who crafted legal principles that advanced American diplomatic and strategic interests while shaping global perceptions of space as the final frontier. By analysing archival records, diplomatic exchanges, and legal texts, the article reveals how competing worldviews and interests influenced early space law’s content and institutional design. It highlights the interplay between bilateral negotiations among superpowers and multilateral deliberations, exposing how unresolved legal questions were strategically postponed or reframed to maintain US influence. Ultimately, the article contends that space law’s origins were neither neutral nor inevitable but were actively produced by powerful actors weaving ideological projects into the fabric of international law. This legacy continues to inform contemporary debates on space governance, underscoring the enduring significance of early Cold War legal and political imaginaries.
The Beginnings of International Nature Conservation Law with the Svalbard (Spitsbergen) Treaty of 1920 A Transnational Initiative of European Natural and Legal Scientists (Julian Lubini)
DOI: 10.1163/15718050-bja10143
Abstract:
This article describes the genesis of Article 2 of the Svalbard Treaty of 1920. This convention, which came into force 100 years ago on 14 August 1925, not only subjects this Arctic Archipelago to the sovereignty of Norway, but also contains an agreement on nature conservation that, for the first time, is truly international, multilateral and global in protecting nature for its own sake. This article examines this special aspect of the history of international law using contemporary literature and archival sources. Particular attention is paid to previous initiatives by experts from various disciplines and national origins to protect Arctic nature. The project can be seen as a milestone in international nature conservation law, which was originally driven by efforts in Germany and Sweden in particular and was then enforced by Norway and the United States after the First World War. It is also regarded as paradigmatic for the formation of new international regimes, a feature that came to typify modern international law in its capacity to regulate specific interests and challenges.
Book reviews
- Relations internationales et droit(s). Acteurs, institutions et législations comparées (1815–1914), edited by Raphaël Cahen, Sara L. Kimble, Pierre Allorant, Walter Badier and P. Sean Morris (Eliana Augusti)
- The Holy Alliance. Liberalism and the Politics of Federation, written by Isaac Nakhimovsky (Raphaël Cahen)
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