Theorising Order in the Shadow of War. The Politics of International Legal Knowledge and the Justification of Force in Modernity
Journal: Journal of the History of International Law / Revue d’histoire du droit international
Year: 2020

Abstract The History of International Law lacks systematic studies on the link between legal scholars and practices of justifying war. This missing analytical link has for a long time given the impression that legal scholars describe ‘state practice’ in an ‘objective’, unpolitical way. Contradicting this impression, the article turns to the politics of legal scholars in the genesis of the modern war discourse. It reflects on the fateful entanglement of violence, law and politics, but nevertheles