The turn to history in international law and the sources doctrine: Critical approaches and methodological imaginaries

Abstract

Expanding now familiar debates about the impact of the ‘historical turn’ upon the field of international law, this article considers some of the different ways in which ‘turn to history’ scholars have confronted the methodological and theoretical tensions arising from the central, yet paradoxical, role occupied by the sources doctrine in international law. We suggest that the anxiety over the sources of international law as the basic methodological precepts of the discipline has been a catalyzing element for a radical reengagement with the canon of international law, one with a significant impact on the field’s existing parameters and doctrinal limits. Within the three streams of scholarship we explore here, history has become a site of creative engagement for scholars in opening up the discipline to diverse ends, one in which a new doctrinal universe can be created, and new issues, sources, subjects, and approaches can be explored. Yet, by opening up international law’s sources doctrine, reactionary causes and unjust ends may equally well be the result. This account is an attempt at diversifying the narrative surrounding the causal relationship between history and the ongoing changes to the field of international law, along with the differential practices, techniques and epistemological foundations behind the history of international law as an evolving discipline, and of the different scholarly motivations of its specialists.

Decolonising the International Law Curriculum: A Critical LiteratureRevieW

“…International law as a discipline has experienced a 'turn to history' in recent decades. 86 With this, there have been discussions about the Eurocentrism of the traditional stories about international law, which have a state-centric and European approach. One way to address this would be to diversify the range of stories and histories presented.…”

“When Paradigms Are Out of Place”: Embracing Eclecticism in Legal Scholarship by Academic Turns

“…As one of the most striking examples, international law scholars are "celebrating the historical turn" in which histories with and of international law have occupied the pivotal stage of scholarly scrutiny and discourses (see, e.g., Arvidsson and McKenna 2020;Craven 2016;d'Aspremont 2019d'Aspremont , 2020Koskenniemi 2001). As a matter of fact, the historiographic turn has already become one of the most vital perspectives in contemporary international legal scholarship.…”

In the eyes of all mankind: Interests and independence in Vattelian statehood

“…This places figures like Vattel in the crosshairs of a larger conceptual debate. Critics argue that by sourcing its normative authority in European and imperialist experience, today’s international order rests on a “congratulatory progressive narrative” with a transparently self-serving bias (Arvidsson and Bak McKenna, 2020: 40; de la Rasilla del Moral, 2015). Others argue the effort to assign Vattel among the villains of international theory obscures more than it reveals, because the closure around state interests that Vattel proscribes is never complete (Hunter, 2013a; Zurbuchen, 2010).…”