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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 November 2018
In this contribution, the key elements of the book’s progress narrative will be discussed. The focus will be set on the ‘backbone’ of the book, which consists of three ideas or elements: the periodisation decision (II), the claim of a specific conception of social change (III), and a specific understanding of international law (IV). In regard to each of those elements it will be asked how they are justified, what insights they provide and whether there are blind spots.
1 Hathaway, OA and Shapiro, SJ, The Internationalists: How A Radical Plan to Outlaw War Remade the World (Simon & Schuster, New York, NY, 2017) 421.Google Scholar
2 See (n 1) 421.
3 Ibid 416.
4 Ibid 80.
5 Ibid xxii.
6 Ibid xv.
7 Ibid xiv.
8 Ibid 80.
9 Ibid 61.
10 Ibid 339.
11 Ibid 335.
12 Ibid 304.
13 Ibid 213.
14 Ibid 169.
15 Ibid 191–2.
16 Ibid 35, 346.
17 Ibid 329.
18 Ibid 313.
19 Ibid 315.
20 Ibid 324.
21 Ibid 324.
22 I particularly like a metaphor suggested by the German historian Johann Gustav Droysen: that in history there are no epochs as there are ‘no lines on the equator’. When we build epochs we suggest concepts of thought which are attributed to empirical reality and which serve the aim of grasping it better, Droysen, JG, Texte zur Geschichtstheorie, Mit ungedruckten Materialien zur ‘Historik’ (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen, 1972) 20.Google Scholar
23 On implications of periodisation decisions in historiography of international law: Diggelmann, O, ‘The Question of Periodization of the History of International Law’ in Fassbender, B and Peters, A (eds), Oxford Handbook of the History of International Law (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2012) 997–1011.Google Scholar
24 On progress narratives and the devices and premises they work with: Altwicker, T and Diggelmann, O, ‘How Is Progress Constructed in International Legal Scholarship?’ (2014) 25(2) European Journal of International Law 425–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
25 For understanding how periodisations ‘function’, it is important to know that new periodisations result not only from the discovery of new facts, but also from the reinterpretation of known ones.
26 See (n 1) xvii.
27 Ibid xvii.
28 Ibid 196.
29 For efforts in the field armament limitation: Webster, A, ‘Making Disarmament Work: The Implementation of the International Disarmament Provisions in the League of Nations Covenant, 1919–1925’ (2005) 16(3) Diplomacy & Statecraft 551–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
30 Also difficult to square with the reading of The Internationalists is art 19 of the Covenant, providing that the Assembly ‘may advise the reconsideration […] of treaties which have become inapplicable and the consideration of international conditions whose continuance might endanger the peace of the world’.
31 In the early years of the League, there was remarkable belief in the potential of ‘social engineering’ through law and the idea of ‘peace through law’ that was in the eyes of many embodied by the League. It had influentially been formulated by Immanuel Kant in his 1795 essay on ‘Perpetual Peace’ and taken up by the peace movements of the 19th century and associations such as the ‘Association de la paix par le droit’, founded in 1888 and active before, during, and after World War I.
32 On the pre-history of 20th century collective security during World War I: Dubin, MD, ‘Toward the Concept of Collective Security: The Bryce Group’s “Proposals for the Avoidance of War,” 1914–1917’ (1970) 24(2) International Organization 288–318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
33 See (n 1) 339.
34 On the emergence of international law out of medieval structures: Diggelmann, O, ‘Die Entstehung des modernen Völkerrechts in der frühen Neuzeit’ in Altwicker, T, Cheneval, F and Diggelmann, O (eds), Völkerrechtsphilosophie der Frühaufklärung (Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, 2015) 1–25.Google Scholar
35 International law as a co-cause of World War I: Diggelmann, O, ‘Beyond the Myth of a Non-relationship: International Law and World War I’ (2017) 19(1) Journal of the History of International 93–120, 97–107.Google Scholar
36 Ibid 104.
37 Ibid 324.
38 IV Hull, A Scrap of Paper: Breaking and Making of International Law in the Great War (Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 2014) 1–3.
39 Classically, evolutionary, functionalist and conflict models are distinguished. For an introduction see, e.g., Calinicos, A, Making History: Agency, Structure, and Social Change in Social Theory (2nd edn, Brill, Leiden and Boston, 2004).Google Scholar
40 See (n 1) xviii.
41 Ibid xv.
42 Ibid 415.
43 Ibid xiv.
44 Ibid xiii.
45 Ibid xviii.
46 Ibid xviii.
47 Ibid 332.
48 Ibid 332.
49 Ibid 332–3.
50 Ibid 333.
51 Münkler, H, Kriegssplitter: Die Evolution der Gewalt im 20. und 21. Jahrhundert (Rowohlt, Berlin, 2015) 143–256.Google Scholar
52 On the revitalisation of international legal theory after the shock of World War I: O Diggelmann, ‘Zugänge zum Völkerrecht in Europa 1918–1939’ in N Dethloff, G Nolte and A Reinisch (eds), Rückblick nach 100 Jahren und Ausblick – Migrationsbewegungen: Berichte der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Internationales Recht, Bd. 49 (C.F. Müller, Heidelberg, 2018) 149–66.
53 See (n 1) 108.
54 Ibid 300.
55 Ibid 421.
56 Ibid 421–2.
57 Ibid 335.
58 Ibid 421.
59 Ibid 61.
60 Ibid 63.
61 Ibid 91.
62 Ibid 300.
63 Ibid 305.
64 Ibid 253.
65 On the origins of neutrality as a legal concept: S Oeter, ‘Ursprünge der Neutralität: Die Herausbildung des Instituts der Neutralität im Völkerrecht der frühen Neuzeit’ (1988) 48 Zeitschrift für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht 447–88.
66 See (n 1) 91.
67 On international law consisting of highly developed and archaic elements see my brief sketch (currently being further elaborated): O Diggelmann, ‘Anmerkungen zu den Unschärfen des völkerrechtlichen Rechtsbegriffs’ (2016) 26(3) Schweizerische Zeitschrift für internationales und europäisches Recht 381–90.
68 Lauterpacht, H, The Function of Law in the International Community (Archon Books, Hamden, CT, 1966) 63–5.Google Scholar
69 See (n 1) 422.
70 Ibid 213.
