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Justifying Utopia
A Legal History of the International Peace Movement (1815â1873)
Series: - Legal History Library, Volume: 75/27
- Studies in the History of International Law, Volume: 75/27
Author:
When and why did international law begin to oppose war? For centuries, sovereignty implied the right to wage war. Yet over the past hundred years, a remarkable succession of treaties, courts, and organisations sprang to life that sought to prohibit war. From a fringe ambition, the ideal of âpeace through lawâ became the foundation of international law. This book traces part of this evolution back to the small peace movement of the early nineteenth century, recounting how the earliest organised pacifists built their legal case against war. The stories of this diverse social movement are told from numerous perspectives, and each sheds further light on how ordinary men and women helped lay the groundwork for one of the greatest shifts in legal thinking about peace and war.
Wouter De Rycke, Ph.D. (2023), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, is a legal historian and a practising lawyer. His scholarly interests focus on the history of debates on war and peace at the intersection of law and wider society.
This book will be of interest to scholars and students studying the history of internationalism, pacifism, and international law. It is also accessible to a wider public curious about these topics.