To the Uttermost Parts of the Earth: Legal Imagination and International Power 1300–1870

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.

‘[This] book is so much more than a brand-new history of international law in the pre-modern era; it is a new history, it is an extraordinary piece of scholarship … not just a scientific work of the finest quality, but also an amazing literary achievement. … It contains a dazzling amount of knowledge about so much more than international law. It also offers new views on intellectual history, medieval scholasticism, the history of early modern theology, and the history of law, tout court.’

Wim Decock Source: Journal of the History of International Law / Revue d'histoire du droit international (JHIL)

‘… intellectual historians and many other audiences too will happily and gratefully scavenge on its rich argument, wealth of scholarship and detail.’

Koen Stapelbroek Source: Journal of the History of International Law / Revue d'histoire du droit international (JHIL)

‘… a veritable trove of intellectual pleasure, full of ideas and written in a remarkably accessible style.’

Randall Lesaffer Source: American Journal of International Law

‘Engaging with the intellectual history of the European Law of Nations engages colonialism and the history of the world. If anyone should attempt to do that, on this scale, it should be Martti Koskenniemi.’

C. L. Lim Source: International and Comparative Law Quarterly

‘… in imagining a different legal history, we are also imagining a different legal future - a project to which Koskenniemi has contributed much.’

Aden Knaap Source: Law and History Review

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To the Uttermost Parts of the Earth

Legal Imagination and International Power 1300–1870

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