The Law of Nations in Global History

C. H. Alexandrowicz
David Armitage and Jennifer Pitts

The History and Theory of International Law

Brings together the first complete collection of Alexandrowicz's writings on topics from pre-colonial South Asia to the international order of the 1970s
Includes the first biographical and critical introduction to Alexandrowicz's life and thought
Facilitates access to important scholarship previously only available in a few major university libraries and not accessible online
Places Alexandrowicz's contribution in context and offers a balanced judgment on the strengths and weaknesses of his work

The Law of Nations in Global History

C. H. Alexandrowicz
David Armitage and Jennifer Pitts

The History and Theory of International Law

Description

The history and theory of international law have been transformed in recent years by post-colonial and post-imperial critiques of the universalistic claims of Western international law. The origins of those critiques lie in the often overlooked work of the remarkable Polish-British lawyer-historian C. H. Alexandrowicz (1902-75). This volume collects Alexandrowicz's shorter historical writings, on subjects from the law of nations in pre-colonial India to the New International Economic Order of the 1970s, and presents them as a challenging portrait of early modern and modern world history seen through the lens of the law of nations.

The book includes the first complete bibliography of Alexandrowicz's writings and the first biographical and critical introduction to his life and works. It reveals the formative influence of his Polish roots and early work on canon law for his later scholarship undertaken in Madras (1951-61) and Sydney (1961-67) and the development of his thought regarding sovereignty, statehood, self-determination, and legal personality, among many other topics still of urgent interest to international lawyers, political theorists, and global historians.

The Law of Nations in Global History

C. H. Alexandrowicz
David Armitage and Jennifer Pitts

The History and Theory of International Law

'This Modern Grotius': An Introduction to the Life and Thought of C.H. Alexandrowicz, David Armitage and Jennifer Pitts
PART ONE: THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE LAW OF NATIONS
Kautilyan Principles and the Law of Nations (1965-66)
Paulus Vladimiri and the Development of the Doctrine of the Coexistence of Christian and Non-Christian Countries (1963)
Mogul Sovereignty and the Law of Nations (1955)
PART TWO: ASIA AND THE LAW OF NATIONS
'Jus Gentium' and the Law of Nature in Asia (1956)
Some Problems in the History of the Law of Nations in Asia (1963)
Le Droit des Nations aux Indes Orientales: Aux XVIe, XVIIe, XVIIIe siecles (1964)
Grotius and India (1954)
Freitas Versus Grotius (1959)
The Discriminatory Clause in South Asian Treaties in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (1957)
A Persian-Dutch Treaty in the Seventeenth Century (1958)
Puffendorf-Crull and the Afro-Asian World (1968-69)
A Treatise by J. H. G. Justi on Asian Government (1960-61)
Doctrinal Aspects of the Universality of the Law of Nations (1961)
G. F. de Martens on Asian Treaty Practice (1964)
The Continuity of the Sovereign Status of China in International Law (1956)
The Legal Position of Tibet (1954)
Is India a Federation? (1954)
PART THREE: AFRICA AND THE LAW OF NATIONS
Le Rôle des Traités dans les Relations entre les Puissances Européennes et les Souverains Africains (Aspects historiques) (1970)
The Partition of Africa by Treaty (1974)
The Role of Treaties in the European-African Confrontation in the Nineteenth Century (1975)
The Role of German Treaty Making in the Partition of Africa (1980)
The Juridical Expression of the Sacred Trust of Civilization (1971)
PART FOUR: THE RECOGNITION OF NEW STATES IN INTERNATIONAL LAW
Empirical and Doctrinal Positivism in International Law (1974-75)
The Theory of Recognition in Fieri (1958)
The Quasi-Judicial Function in the Recognition of States and Governments (1952)
Israel in Fieri (1951)
New and Original States: The Issue of Reversion to Sovereignty (1969)
The New States and International Law (1974)
The Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States (1975)
Bibliography of the Writings of C. H. Alexandrowicz

The Law of Nations in Global History

C. H. Alexandrowicz
David Armitage and Jennifer Pitts

The History and Theory of International Law

Author Information

C. H. Alexandrowicz

Charles Henry Alexandrowicz (1902-1975) was a Polish scholar who pioneered research in the critical history of international law in the 1950s and 1960s. His works included World Economic Agencies, Law and Practice (1962); An Introduction to the History of the Law of Nations in the East Indies (1967); The Law of Global Communications (1971); and The Law-Making Functions of the Specialised Agencies of the United Nations (1973).

David Armitage is the Lloyd C. Blankfein Professor of History at Harvard University, where he teaches intellectual and international history. He is also an Affiliated Faculty member at Harvard Law School and an Affiliated Professor in Harvard's Department of Government. Among his publications are The Ideological Origins of the British Empire (2000), The Declaration of Independence: A Global History (2007), Foundations of Modern International Thought (2013), The History Manifesto (co-auth., 2014), and Civil Wars: A History in Ideas (2017).

Jennifer Pitts is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. She is author of A Turn to Empire: the rise of imperial liberalism in Britain and France (2005) and editor and translator of Alexis de Tocqueville: writings on empire and slavery (2001). She is currently completing a book,Boundaries of the International, that explores European debates over legal relations with extra-European societies during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

The Law of Nations in Global History

C. H. Alexandrowicz
David Armitage and Jennifer Pitts

The History and Theory of International Law

Reviews and Awards

"Charles Henry Alexandrowicz (1902-1975) was among the few who recognized the presence of multiple international, or regional, legal systems on the planet co-terminus with European international law. That a superhuman effort was required to trace his numerous publications is further evidence of how valuable this collection is." - Jus Gentium

The Law of Nations in Global History

C. H. Alexandrowicz
David Armitage and Jennifer Pitts

The History and Theory of International Law

From Our Blog

Preparing for the American Society of International Law Annual Meeting of 2017

As the first buds of cherry blossom start to bloom around the Tidal Basin and throughout East Potomac Park in Washington D.C., the international law community prepares to descend on the nation's capital for the largest annual event in the PIL calendar.

Posted on March 27, 2017

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