Workshop Series: New Directions in the Theory & History of International Law. Workshop III - The Province of International Law: Space, Time, and Representation in International Legal History

30-31 mai 2024

Daniel Ricardo Quiroga Villamarin

Voir programme : The Province of International Law: Space, Time, and Representation in International Legal History | IHEID (graduateinstitute.ch)

The field of international legal history finds itself at a crossroads. After some decades, the tone of the literature on the "turn to history" has turned from celebration to self-critique. Indeed, the last couple of years have witnessed increased calls to pursue new directions, departing from the "well-worn paths" initially explored in the literature. In this vein, some urge for a localized approach to the study of "legal politics," while others push for a "history of international law in the vernacular," a "grassroots analysis," or a "radical historical critique." Moreover, the "marked absences" of class, gender, and race from the traditional canon of the discipline seem like an increasingly inexcusable exclusion. In sum, the stage is set for a profound reconsideration of the aims, methodologies, and archives of contemporary international legal history. 

 Part of the "New Directions in the Theory & History of International Law" series, this workshop will be dedicated to the theme of "The Province of International Law: Space, Time, and Representation in International Legal History." In the context of the workshop, a diverse group of scholars will reflect on how time, space, and place are represented in international legal history. As such, the papers discussed in the workshop seek to strike exciting conversations between the field of international law and recent developments in the studies of temporality and spatiality.

 Alongside three thematic panels and a concluding roundtable, Luis Eslava (Kent Law School & La Trobe University) will give an opening keynote lecture entitled "The Political Economy of Representation: Counter-archiving and International Legal History." 

Convened by Daniel R. Quiroga-Villamarín and hosted by the Global Governance Centre, this workshop has been organized with the generous support of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), the Conférence Universitaire de Suisse Occidentale (CUSO), and the Departments of International law and International History & Politics at the Geneva Graduate Institute. 

Page of the conference : The Province of International Law: Space, Time, and Representation in International Legal History | IHEID (graduateinstitute.ch)

May 30, 2024 

14:15-15:45 (Room A2)

Opening Keynote: "The Political Economy of Representation: Counter-archiving and International Legal History"

- Luis Eslava (La Trobe University & University of Kent)

Discussant: tbc

Introductory remarks and moderation: Daniel R. Quiroga-Villamarín (Geneva Graduate Institute)

16:15-18:45 – Panel I – Representing Time (Room A2)

16:00-16:15 "Anachronism and Imperial Gaze: Forgotten Debates on Wartime Sexual Violence in Nineteenth Century International Law" - Anastasia Hammerschmied (University of Vienna)

16:15-16:30 "The Colonial History of International Investment Law: Looking beyond the Mid-Twentieth Century" - Harshad Pathak (University of Geneva)

16:30-16:45 "For a Masculine and Latin-American International Law? An Analysis of the Discourses of Semi-peripheral Internationalists in the 20th Century" - Manuela Camargo de Assis (University of Brasilia)

16:45-17:00 "Truth and Legal Judgement: History through the Lens" - Genevieve Renard Painter (Concordia University) 

17:00-17:15 "Law versus Myth: AmerIndian Perspectivism and a Critique of International Law's Historical Composition of Space and Time" - André Nunes Chaib (Maastricht University)

17:15-17:30 "From Here to Eternity? Time, History, and International Law" - Valentina Vadi (University of Florence)

17:30-18:00 Discussion

Moderator: Daniel R. Quiroga-Villamarin - Discussant: Luis Eslava

May 31, 2024 

10:00-12:15 – Panel II – Representing Place (Room A2)

10:00-10:15 "Architecture, Artefacts, & Aspirations for Justice: The Design of the Criminal Courts of Ireland 1750-1850" - Lorna Cameron (University of Lincoln)

10:15-10:30 "Kowloon Walled City: Rival Jurisdictions and Lawlessness" - Yilin Wang (University of Macao)

10:30-10:45 "The Depoliticization of the Indus Rivers: International Law in Kashmir" - Rishabh Bajoria (University of Cambridge)

10:45-11:00 "Worldmaking through the Practice of Contracting: Reterritorializing the Exercise of Authority and Law-making" - Gail Lythgoe (University of Edinburgh)

11:00-11:15 "Building the Peace Palace: Transnational Politics and Local Labor" - Tanja Aalberts and Sofia Stolk (VU Amsterdam)

11:15-11:30 "The Vienna World Conference on Human Rights: Somewhere, Everywhere, and the Spatio-Temporal" - Kathryn McNeilly (Queen's University Belfast)

11:30-12:15 Discussion Moderator: Daniel R. Quiroga-Villamarin - Discussant: Luis Eslava

Conference lunch -for speakers only- 12:30-14:00 

14:15-17:00 – Panel III – Representing Movement (Room S6)

14:15-14:30 "Laws of Yesterday's Wars: A Spatio-Temporal Analysis" - Samuel White (Adelaide Law School)

14:30-14:45 "Beyond Faithful Observance: Japan's Complex Entanglement with International Law during World War II" - Hirofumi Oguri (Okayama University)

14:45-15:00 "The Models of Global Environmental Law that Computer Assisted Research Help Us See" - Natasha Affolder (University of British Columbia)

15:00-15:15 "Policy Space in the 'Problem-Spaces' of International Economic Law" - Matthew Windsor (University of Nottingham)

15:15-15:30 "International Law's Bus Stops: The Political Economy of Bogotá's Transmilenio (1990-2020s)" - Juan Diego Dimaté-Gómez (University of Surrey)

15:30-15:45 "Temple of Peace: Legal Ritual at the International Court of Justice" - Valentin Jeutner (Lund University)

15:45-16:30 Discussion

Moderator: Daniel R. Quiroga-Villamarin - Discussant: Luis Eslava

17:00-19:00 - Concluding Roundtable: The Local and the International Room S6

17:10-17:20 "Local Government and Universal Laws: Interpreting the Iconography of the Amsterdam Town Hall" - Janne Nijman

17:20-17:30 "International Law and Enclosure of the Commons: a Marxist-post Structuralist Approach" - Negar Mansouri

17:30-17:40 "Classes of Sovereignty in mid-nineteenth century Imperialism" - Ryan Mitra

17:50-18:00 "Crafting the (Segregated) Universal: The Carnegie Endowment's Training Program for Junior Third-World Diplomats in Geneva (1960-1972)" - Soheil Ghasemi 

18:00-18:10 "The Myth of the Unlikely Asylum Seeker Stories and the Exclusion of Vernacular Histories" - Derya Çakim,

18:10-18:20 "Political Theology of Jihad: The Jurisprudence of Muhammad ibn Idris al-Sahfi'I (767-820)" -

Farzad Fallah 18:20-18:30 "International Legal History, Internationally: Meditations on an Organizational Pilgrimage into the Archives of Global Governance (2020-2024)" - Daniel R. Quiroga-Villamarín (All speakers, Geneva Graduate Institute)

18:30-19:00 Discussion 

Moderator: tbc - Discussant: Luis Eslava

30 May 2024, 14:15 - 31 May 2024, 19:00 - IHEID, Auditorium A2, Maison de la paix, Geneva

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