Stories of War and Peace : On Writing the History of International Law in the 'Third Reich' and After
Journal
European Journal of International Law
ISSN
0938-5428
ISSN-Digital
1464-3596
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2002
Author(s)
Abstract
This essay presents some reflections on what today is widely regarded as the standard book on the history of international law, and on its author, Wilhelm G. Grewe, who after 1945 was one of the architects of West Germany's international legal status and of its relations with the three Western Allied Powers. In particular, the essay discusses Grewe's principal and most influential idea, an interpretation of the history of modern international law as a sequence of epochs defined in each case by the then-dominant power in the states' system. Since Grewe developed and formulated this idea in the context of National Socialist political and legal thought, and particularly under the influence of Carl Schmitt's work, the essay leads back to the time of the Second World War and the ideological struggles of that time. In that respect, it is a study of the performance of international legal scholars under the conditions of a dictatorship, and of the intellectual legacy of the "Third Reich" in international law. Thus, in different ways the essay explores the larger questions of the origins, validity and future of the idea of a power-based international legal order.
Language
English
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
No
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Publisher place
Oxford
Volume
13
Number
2
Start page
479
End page
512
Pages
34
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Eprints ID
234608
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Name
Fassbender Stories of War and Peace.pdf
Size
206.77 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
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