The Introduction and Chapters 1, 3, 5–8, 11, 12, 14, 15 and 18 were originally published in Journal of the History of International Law / Revue d’histoire du droit international, Volume 22, Issue 2–3 (October 2020): Special Issue: Politics and the Histories of International Law. The page numbers in square brackets at the top of the pages in these chapters refer to the journal version.
The conference from which the book originates was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) – Project Number PE 631/6-1 and supported by Koninklijke Brill NV.
Cover illustration: Artemisia Gentileschi, “Clio”, Proprietà della Fondazione Pisa/Palazzo Blu.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Schäfer, Raphael, editor. | Peters, Anne (Editor of Politics and the histories of international law)
Title: Politics and the histories of international law : the quest for knowledge and justice / edited by Raphael Schäfer and Anne Peters.
Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill/Nijhoff, 2021. | Series: Legal history library; volume 50 | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021018091 (print) | LCCN 2021018092 (ebook) | ISBN 9789004461796 (hardback) | ISBN 9789004461802 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: International law—History. | International law—Historiography. | International law—Political aspects. | International relations.
Classification: LCC KZ1242 .P63 2021 (print) | LCC KZ1242 (ebook) | DDC 341.09—dc23
LC record available at
LC ebook record available at
Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download:
ISSN 1874-1793
ISBN 978-90-04-46179-6 (hardback)
ISBN 978-90-04-46180-2 (e-book)
Copyright 2020–2021 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands, except where stated otherwise.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Hotei, Brill Schöningh, Brill Fink, Brill mentis, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Böhlau Verlag and V&R Unipress.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Requests for re-use and/or translations must be addressed to Koninklijke Brill NV via
This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.