Rationale

The field of international legal history finds itself at a crossroads. After some decades, the tone of the literature on the “turn to history” has turned from celebration to self-critique. Indeed, the last couple of years has witnessed increased calls to pursue new directions in international legal history, departing from the “well-worn paths” initially explored.

In this vein, some urge for a localized approach to the study of “legal politics,” while others push for a “history of international law in the vernacular,” a “grassroots analysis,” or a “radical historical critique.” Recent years have witnessed calls for a (new) materialist approach, which resonates with other broader drives for the retrieval of Marxist perspectives in international legal history. Moreover, the “marked absences” of class, gender, and race from the traditional canon of the discipline seem like an increasingly inexcusable exclusion.  In sum, the stage is set for a profound reconsideration of the aims, methodologies, and archives of contemporary international legal history.

With these considerations in mind, the interdisciplinary New Directions in the Theory & History of International Law workshop series, convened by Daniel R. Quiroga-Villamarin, aims to create a space where emerging and senior scholars of different traditions can meet and rethink on the past, present, and future of the theory and history of the international law.

Workshop Programme

In order to promote productive conversations between different disciplinary sensibilities and perspectives, the New Directions in the Theory & History of International Law workshop series will host three two-day academic workshops from 2022 to 2024. Each event will be dedicated to a particular theme and feature a keynote lecture from a distinguished scholar:

• June 2022 – “Political economy, History, and International Law,” with a keynote lecture by Professor Susan Marks (London School of Economics)

• October 2023 – “Beauty and Power: Aesthetics, History, and International Law,” with a keynote lecture by Professor Kate Miles (University of Cambridge)

• Spring 2024 – “The Province of International Law” with a keynote lecture by Professor Luis Eslava (University of Kent)

For the third and last workshop of the Doc.CH “New Directions in the Theory & History of International Law” Workshop series, we are particularly interested in hosting scholars that problematize both the spatio-temporal coordinates and the modalities of representation of international legal history. While our discipline has long tried to see itself as one that happens “everywhere” with the perspective of a “universalizing gaze,” in truth, such interventions only happen “somewhere” —often, far from the places we easily associate with the adjective “international.” For this reason, we build on previous work that has called into question the artificial divisions between the “local,” “national,” “international,” or “imperial,” units of analysis and on the burgeoning literature on “cities and international law” to foreground questions of space and scale in international legal history. We embrace, at the same time, the productive tensions involved in capturing and representing traditional and alternative spatio-temporal boundaries of “the province” of international law.

With this in mind, we are interested in paper proposals that theoretically question the ways in which different spatial and temporal spaces and modalities of inquiry limit —or enrich— our ways of seeing international law’s “world making practices.”  And we would also welcome more empirically oriented contributions that attempt to traverse these imaginary registers —especially those that move within multiple spatio-temporal registers of international law and its history.

The speakers will be chosen from this public call for papers, considering the importance of a diverse mix of participants from different disciplinary and geographical sensibilities, along with a balanced composition between scholars of different genders and career-stages. Sadly, in principle,
we will not be able to fund the travel and accommodation costs of the participants.

Application

Scholars who would like to present a paper at the third workshop are invited to submit a title and abstract (250─500 words) to daniel.quiroga@graduateinstitute.ch before October 31, 2023 (23:59 Geneva Time - CEST). A decision on acceptance of the abstract will be communicated by late November 2023.

We expect to host the workshop in person, but hybrid participation might be considered depending on the overall sanitary situation and the guidelines issued by the Geneva Graduate Institute.

We are keen on exploring options for a collective publication effort after the workshop. As such, we encourage potential participants to bear this in mind as they prepare their abstracts.