Year : 2023, Volume : 9, Issue : 1and2
First page : ( 1) Last page : ( 15)
Print ISSN : 2277-4904. Online ISSN : 2277-4912. Published online : 2023  28.
Article DOI : 10.5958/2277-4912.2023.00001.2

The past as law or history? The relevance of imperialism for Modern International Law

Orford Anne^*

Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor, Michael D Kirby Chair of International Law, and an Australian Laureate Fellow at Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne

^*Email: anne.orford58@gmail.com

Online Published on 28 February, 2024.

Abstract

The Modern International Law is considered an offshoot of European intellectual contributions as its basic foundation is deeply imbued with the political and social upheavals took place in European history. As an example, the Westphalian order emerged in the culmination of thirty years war in 1648 was regarded as the most pivotal mile stone in modern history of international law. This article examines the relationship between imperialism and international law. It argues that colonial confrontation was central to the formation of international law and, in particular, its founding concept, sovereignty. Traditional histories of the discipline present colonialism and non-European peoples as peripheral concerns. Yet the European domination and its intellectual contribution to the development of international law systematically excluded nonEuropean nations from international law and its protection, which finally paved the path to use international law in the 19th century as a tool of legitimizing the colonial expansion. This paper seeks to trace the historiography of modern international law and its dubious nature of disdaining non-Europeans and their civilizational thinking.

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Keywords

International Law, Empire, Colonialism, Civilization.

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