The Oxford Handbook of the History of International Law provides an authoritative and original overview of the origins, concepts, and core issues of international law. The first comprehensive Handbook on the history of international law, it is a truly unique contribution to the literature of international law and relations. Pursuing both a global and an interdisciplinary approach, the Handbook brings together some sixty eminent scholars of international law, legal history, and global history from all parts of the world.

Covering international legal developments from the 15th century until the end of World War II, the Handbook consists of over sixty individual chapters which are arranged in six parts. The book opens with an analysis of the principal actors in the history of international law, namely states, peoples and nations, international organisations and courts, and civil society actors. Part Two is devoted to a number of key themes of the history of international law, such as peace and war, the sovereignty of states, hegemony, religion, and the protection of the individual person. Part Three addresses the history of international law in the different regions of the world (Africa and Arabia, Asia, the Americas and the Caribbean, Europe), as well as 'encounters' between non-European legal cultures (like those of China, Japan, and India) and Europe which had a lasting impact on the body of international law. Part Four examines certain forms of 'interaction or imposition' in international law, such as diplomacy (as an example of interaction) or colonization and domination (as an example of imposition of law). The classical juxtaposition of the civilized and the uncivilized is also critically studied. Part Five is concerned with problems of the method and theory of history writing in international law, for instance the periodisation of international law, or Eurocentrism in the traditional historiography of international law. The Handbook concludes with a Part Six, entitled "People in Portrait", which explores the life and work of twenty prominent scholars and thinkers of international law, ranging from Muhammad al-Shaybani to Sir Hersch Lauterpacht.

The Handbook will be an invaluable resource for scholars and students of international law. It provides historians with new perspectives on international law, and increases the historical and cultural awareness of scholars of international law. It aims to become the new standard reference work for the global history of international law.

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Review

WINNER OF THE 2014 ASIL CERTIFICATE OF MERIT IN A SPECIALIZED AREA OF INTERNATIONAL LAW

"The volume does a marvelous job of hemming the topic in, but pays a price for its breadth and the erudition of its contributors by leaving the reader ungratefully greedy for further contextualization and (historical) policy detail - sparking this hunger in the reader though is a true vindication of a handbook of this sort."
--Wouter P. F. Schmit Jongbloed, ASIL Cables

"By any measure, the book is a substantial achievement, and it will be widely and rewardingly consulted for many years to come." -Jacob Katz Cogan, University of Cincinnati, American Journal of International Law

About the Author

Bardo Fassbender is Professor of International Law at the Bundeswehr University in Munich. He studied law, history and political science at the University of Bonn (Germany) and holds an LL.M from Yale Law School (1992) and a Doctor iuris from the Humboldt University in Berlin (1997), where he also completed his Habilitation in 2004 and became Privatdozent for the disciplines of public law, international law, European law and constitutional history. He was a Ford Foundation Senior Fellow in Public International Law at Yale University and a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence. His principal fields of research are international law, United Nations law, German constitutional law, comparative constitutional law and theory, and the history of international and constitutional law. He advised the Legal Counsel and Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations on the subject of "Targeted sanctions of the UN Security Council and Due Process of Law".

Anne Peters is Director of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, and Professor of Public International and Constitutional Law at the University of Basel, a position she has held since 2001. She is Dean of Research of the Law Faculty. She is a member of the Council of Europe's Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission) in respect of Germany. She currently serves as the president of the European Society of International Law. In 2009, Anne was a visiting professor at Sciences Po, Paris. In the academic year 2004/05 she was Dean of the Basel law faculty. She obtained the Habilitation-qualification at the Walther-Schucking-Institute of Public International Law at the Christian Albrechts University Kiel on the basis of her Habilitation-Thesis "Elemente einer Theorie der Verfassung Europas" (Elements of a Theory of the Constitution of Europe) in 2000. Her research activities cover general public international law, especially its constitutionalization, European constitutional law, constitutional theory, and national and international human rights.

Simone Peter holds a doctoral degree in law (Dr. iur.) and a degree in general history and German language (lic. phil., MA). She worked as a research assistant to the chair of International Law at the University of Basel from 2006 to 2012. Her research covered the field of general public international law and the history of international law. She currently works as a lawyer in the public administration of Basel-Stadt.

Daniel Högger is PhD candidate and works as Research and Teaching Assistant to the Chair of International Law at the University of Basel. He holds a degree (lic phil/MA) in political science, international law, and history from the University of Zurich, and a degree (MA with distinction) in international studies from the University of Birmingham, UK.