Lunch seminar with Aden Knaap
Judging the World: International Courts and the End of Empire
When did international courts begin to influence world politics? Most scholars say not until very recently: after the end of the Cold War. Before then, so the traditional narrative goes, international courts were politically marginal: their numbers limited, their jurisdiction voluntary, and their standing restricted to states. They were, on this view, ‘old-style' international courts. It is only in the 1990s that ‘new-style' international courts are said to have emerged: their numbers much greater, their jurisdiction compulsory, and their standing expanded to include non-state actors.
My book project, ‘Judging the World: International Courts and the End of Empire’, suggests that this gets the history backwards. I argue that international courts were central to world politics from 1900 to the 1970s. During this period, almost every recognised polity joined these courts, from the smallest of small states to the greatest of great powers, including the United States, the Soviet Union, and China. Corporations and individuals appeared before them. And parties almost always obeyed their verdicts. As a result, these courts were involved in some of the most significant conflicts of the period: from the Boer War in southern Africa to the Banana Wars in Central America and the Caribbean; from the First World War to the Russian Revolution; and from the decolonization of Asia and Africa after the Second World War to the nationalization of oil during the Cold War. In short, for almost a century, international courts governed the world—or, rather, they judged it.
From this vantage point, the division between ‘old’ and ‘new’ international courts appears anachronistic. In many ways, the old international courts of the early twentieth century were more powerful than today’s new ones.
Speaker bio
Aden Knaap is a Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence.
His articles have been published in law and history journals including the European Journal of International Law and the Journal of Global History.
He is currently writing a book about the history of international courts and their impact on world order in the twentieth century.
Meeting ID: 665 3869 0328
Passcode: 810245