‘An Obstacle,though not a Barrier’: the Role of International Law in Security Planning during the Pax Britannica

This article explores the role of international law in nineteenth-century British security planning, arguing that statesmen believed law could only influence state conduct rather than determine outcomes. As a result, statesmen crafted agreements to exploit the possibilities of international law while recognising its limitations. The article explores the functions of law, providing examples of how diplomats employed law to increase predictability in interstate relations, signal national interests, and strengthen mutual interests between countries. However, the role of war in the international legal system exposed flawed assumptions about the future of war, limiting the effectiveness of law.     

跨文化传播研究与中国的国际话语权

争取与中国的大国地位相适应的国际话语权,是中国应对西方国家主导的国际体系的长期诉求。从文化与传播视角审视国际话语体系,通过加强自主性的学术努力特别是本土化研究,把握国际话语的生产、控制的特征及规律,积极参与调整、解释、建构和传播中国的国际话语,是中国跨文化传播研究长期面对的重要使命。基于争取国际话语权的目标,跨文化传播研究的本土化涉及到三个追问:立足中国社会、文化和历史的语境;建立跨学科的整体性视野;坚持以本土议题为研究对象。     

Legal realism and human rights

This essay uses Schmitt's work to cast new light on the relevance of the American legal tradition known as ‘legal realism’ for the history and analysis of human rights. It does so by exploring several of Schmitt's most famous criticisms of international law and human rights, and then suggests how they might correspond with a widespread critical legal tradition in the 1920s and 1930s. This essay describes in detail two fundamental features of this tradition: historicism and realism. It concludes by suggesting that a return to some of these earlier law writers and texts might be a more substantive way to develop a constructive critical position in the fields of human rights and international law than an overreliance on the politically provocative (and problematic) rhetorical flourishes of Carl Schmitt.     

Legal realism and human rights

This essay uses Schmitt's work to cast new light on the relevance of the American legal tradition known as ‘legal realism’ for the history and analysis of human rights. It does so by exploring several of Schmitt's most famous criticisms of international law and human rights, and then suggests how they might correspond with a widespread critical legal tradition in the 1920s and 1930s. This essay describes in detail two fundamental features of this tradition: historicism and realism. It concludes by suggesting that a return to some of these earlier law writers and texts might be a more substantive way to develop a constructive critical position in the fields of human rights and international law than an overreliance on the politically provocative (and problematic) rhetorical flourishes of Carl Schmitt.     

Women's Rights as Human Rights after the End of History

This article is based on the 2022 Gender & History annual lecture. It reconsiders the recent history of women's rights as human rights. The collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union brought to an end a twentieth-century discourse of women's rights, understood not only as legal norms, but as a political language harnessed to a narrative of women as a collective subject progressing towards emancipation and equality. This was enabled by an international order in which human rights were tied to visions of self-determination, social rights and strong states, creating spaces for new subjects to make their voices heard in international law, albeit in particular and circumscribed ways. After 1989, women were again written into international law primarily as victims of violence, while the emergence of gender as a category of analysis challenged the notion of ‘women’ as a collective subject of rights. The story of women's rights, the article concludes, suggests that recent revisionist histories of human rights as a neoliberal utopia are only one part of a more complex human rights history.     

Sister-in-Law Marriage in the Empire: Religious Politics and Legislative Reform in the Australian Colonies 1850–1900

In 1835, a statute was passed in the parliament of the United Kingdom making it illegal for a widowed man to marry his sister-in-law. 1 Lord Lyndhurst's Act (1835) 5 & 6 Will VI c. 54. Marriage to a sister-in-law after a wife's death was common practice in nineteenth-century England and colonial Australia and aunts often took on the responsibility of raising children after a sibling's death. In the 1840s, a protracted parliamentary and social debate began over whether a widowed man's marriage to his sister-in-law should be made legal and this debate lasted over seven decades. In the Australian colonies, where English law had been inherited, 2 Those Australian colonies settled prior to the passing of Lord Lyndhurst's Act inherited the English position regarding deceased wife's sister marriage at the time, that such unions were voidable in the ecclesiastical courts during the lifetime of the parties, and in those colonies established afterwards, the 1835 statute applied and deceased wife's sister unions were illegal. In both cases colonial parliaments attempted to pass legislation to clarify the law. a similar debate occurred in the 1870s. The marriage was legalised in most of Australia in the 1870s while it remained illegal in England until the turn of the century. The parallel debates in each country provide a window into the comparative effect of religious culture on the development of marriage law. One of the primary reasons for the protracted nature of the struggle for marriage reform in England was its significance for the relationship between church and state. This article explores the implications of the relationship between church and state in Britain and the colonies for marriage legislation.     

Volksunruhen in Württemberg 1789–1801

The juridical force of time forms a critical, but hitherto unexplored part of Hugo Grotius’s discourse on the justice of war and peace. Grotius defines war as a span of time in which disputed rights and armed conflicts between states are examined in reference to temporal coordinates. This method allows him to adjust otherwise static laws to meet the demands of times and spaces in an increasingly expanded world. In doing so, Grotius is also able to reconcile multiple layers of laws in a temporal framework, which suspends one layer of law, to be revived at later times. Finally, cautious in the use of the language of time, Grotius admits both that right demands immediacy, and that justice suffers delays. By this nexus of delay (mora) and emergency (necessitas), Grotius warns against the abuse of ‘time’ as a legal concept to justify unlawful claims, which still rings with alarm today.     

China,Natural Resources,Sovereignty and International Law

Abstract

This article explores China’s attitudes towards the regulation of key natural resources by international law, domestically and at the trans-boundary and international levels. It considers the impact of international law on China’s own practices, and the contribution of China towards shaping international law. The article suggests that popular conceptions of a relatively isolated, sovereign absolutist China do not accord with contemporary legal realities, including in its dealings with natural resources. While China’s construction of strong sovereignty shapes its attitudes towards legal regulation, practice also suggests that China adopts a nuanced approach which includes legal compromise, and a commitment to multilateral regulation or bilateral diplomatic settlement of issues previously within the competence of national governments. China is often an active and constructive participant in contemporary law-making, even if – like all countries – it also seeks to instrumentally use international law.     

Polygamy and Legislation in Contemporary Iran: An Analysis of the Public Legal Discourse

The purpose of this article is to analyze the interaction between different interpretations of Islamic jurisprudence in Iran and state law. It focuses on the public legal discourse about the new Family Draft Law in 2007–08, especially Article 23 regulating polygamous marriages and removing necessity for the first wife's permission. The participants in this public legal debate, which took place on the internet and in the media, were civil society organizations, especially women's organizations, the Shiite clergy, and state representatives. The article argues that even in a non-democratic, theocratic state such as the Islamic Republic of Iran, public discourse promoted by the named actors can challenge and influence state legislation. The removal of Article 23 from the Draft confirms this argument, but in the law of 2013 the requirement for the first wife's permission is not found. By looking at the arguments brought forward in the public discourse, the article demonstrates that the arguments are mainly “Islamic,” and none refers to international human rights, as this seems to be a kind of taboo in the political discourse.     

Louis Ranvier (1835-1922): the contribution of microscopy to physiology and the renewal of French general anatomy

The French neurohistologist Louis-Antoine Ranvier (1835-1922), somewhat neglected in classical histories of nineteenth-century studies on the nervous system, developed a personal style, traditionally referred to as a synthesis between histology and physiology. Ranvier's research was not centered on the brain. Rather, he remained attached to the intimate nature of minute structures, with a style marked by the concept of generality. Ranvier's original style and role in the development of French histology and anatomie générale are analyzed, and their significance evaluated. Ranvier is reassessed as a prominent figure and as the leader in the renewal of the French anatomy.     

“中国中心观”与“夷”“洋”之变

晚清之前,中国始终认为自己是世界的中心,将中国之外的其他一切民族都看作是未开化的“蛮夷”。特别是明代朝贡制度形成后,“夷”“夏”卑尊泾渭分明。晚清从鸦片战争到中日甲午战争近六十年间,实现了从“夷”到“洋”的艰难转变。本文从“中国中心观”的形成入手,对这一转变进行了分析。     

“反文明”的文明圣人:排华酝酿时期美国媒体的孔子形象

19世纪是中西力量对比最为悬殊的时期,西方社会蔑视中国文明之举极为普遍。美国媒体的孔子观具有强烈的代表性。孔子本为中国的文明圣人,但美国的媒体话语却让其走向文明进步的对立面,被刻画为中国融入近代世界的巨大障碍。美国媒体认为,孔子控制着中国人的思维,造就了极其保守、极具惰性的中国国民性格,导致了中美社会发展程度之间的鸿沟。他们沾沾自喜于以基督教为基础的美欧文明的"先进性",某些中国人皈依基督教以及日本人抛弃孔子思想的积极态度被毫不犹豫地用作了支撑证据。19世纪后半期的美国媒体论及孔子的真正目的在于证明欧美文明的优越。     

Common usage,presumption and verisimilitude in sixteenth-century theories of juridical interpretation

The question of how common usage could be constitutive for the meaning of linguistic expressions has been discussed by Renaissance philosophers such as Lorenzo Valla, and it also played an important role in Renaissance theories of juridical interpretation. An aspect of the analysis of common usage in Renaissance theories of juridical interpretation that concerns the role of presumption has not yet found much attention. Renaissance jurists such as Simone de Praetis, Nicolaus Everardus, and Aimone de Cravetta saw that both the usage of Latin by practitioners of law and the vernacular common usage of ordinary people often differed from the technical definition of legal concepts as laid down by ancient jurists or modern legislators. In some cases, they ascribed both to Latin and to vernacular common usage the power of changing the meaning of juridical terms. Still, they were aware of the fact that matters of common usage involve always a degree of uncertainty. The methodological notion of presumption is one of the concepts that figured most prominently in Renaissance approaches to the problem of uncertainty, and, in particular, it was applied in the analysis of meaning-change of legal concepts through common usage.     

"A More Perfect Union": Ableman v. Booth and the Culmination of Federal Sovereignty

The discourse over federal versus state jurisdiction was ingrained into American politics at the nation's inception. It has been the premise of our most historically significant rivalries—between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay, and Daniel Webster and Robert Hayne. Though this debate remains a contentious topic in contemporary political discourse, the U.S. Supreme Court settled the legal controversy on the eve of America's bloodiest conflagration. Unanimously, the Court ruled that the federal union was of greater importance than the authority of the individual states. The 1859 Ableman v. Booth ¹ decision was wrought from moral controversy, legal precedent, and political necessity, coupled with the full force of law, and has endured as a compelling pronouncement on the need for continuity and stability in uncertain times.     

论历史性权利在海洋划界中的作用

历史性权利在海洋划界中作用的法律基础既包括条约法也包括国际习惯法。历史性权利分属不同的法律基础,使其在海洋划界中发挥不同的作用。以《联合国海洋法公约》为代表的条约法,规定了历史性所有权或历史性海湾在领海划界中的优先作用,明确了历史性所有权、历史性水域在海洋划界争端解决程序中具有任择性例外的作用,并确立了历史性捕鱼权在群岛水域划界中具有特别适用的功能;而国际习惯法确立的历史性权利规则在海洋划界中的作用,虽然目前国际法上尚无明确规定,但在国际实践上,其主要以并行适用方式发挥作用。历史性权利在海洋划界中的不同作用,为未来我国与周边国家尤其是南海周边国家海洋划界提供国际适法导引。     

1958年《中华人民共和国政府关于领海的声明》研究

根据国家主权原则,在总结中国领海管理的理论与实践的基础上,结合国际实践和公认的国际法原则,1958年中国政府颁布了《中华人民共和国政府关于领海的声明》,标志着新中国领海制度的初步建立,这对捍卫中国领海主权、维护海洋利益、发展海上交往、巩固海防等都具有重大的意义。     

Power,Humanitarianism and the Global Liberal Order: Abolition and the Barbary Corsairs in the Vienna Congress System

Although the convergence has been little noted, for several years after Napoleon's defeat in 1814, the moves to extend abolition of the African slave trade internationally following Britain's unilateral declaration in 1807 were joined with efforts to interdict the taking of European captives by the Barbary corsairs of the Ottoman Empire's North African Regencies. Examining the conjunction of the two campaigns consequently deepens our understanding of the development of each. At the same time, study of the combined negotiations and lobbying efforts sheds significant light on several important developments in international history during the congress era, including the extension of a liberal order of political economy and diplomacy beyond Europe, the universalization of humanitarian norms, the internationalization of humanitarian interventions and the emergence of new institutions of collective security following the Vienna settlement of 1815. Analysis of the politics surrounding abolition and Barbary also illuminates the nature of the relationship between power, ideas and institutions in the nineteenth-century international system.     

The placing of matter: industrial water pollution and the construction of social order in nineteenth-century France

Set within a Douglasian framework, this paper explores the genesis and the social significance of the concept of environmental ‘pollution’ in late nineteenth-century France by drawing on printed scientific and medical sources and analysing archival material from administrations and industrial companies. ‘Pollution’ brought together various strands of water research (especially water analysis, bacteriology and hydrology) but also served as the foundation of a discourse on industrial responsibility. It was a response to the new material circulations created by industrial discharges in river. Paradoxically, it condoned industrial discharges in watercourses, which the hygienist community deemed less dangerous than domestic wastewaters. The co-production of pollution science and nineteenth-century industrial order explains why industrial water pollution was allowed to go unabated. The incapacity of the legal framework of the time to accommodate polluting discharges as legal objects and find legitimate places for them, the power politics at work around pollution and scientific controversies themselves made discharges very difficult to challenge in court. Accordingly, water pollution was regulated informally and industrialists were able to claim rivers as legitimate places for industrial matter against challenges brought up by other social actors.     

"故事"与"古史":贯通20世纪二三十年代 "疑古"和"释古"的一条道路

一般认为20世纪二三十年代"疑古"与"释古"两条学术路向分别代表了破坏古史和重建古史两条不同的路线。这一看法大体成立。但二者在观念上也有不少相通乃至相同的地方。一方面,"重建派"学者在研究中也运用了与顾颉刚非常相似的"层累说"观察古史的构成,而历史研究中的"故事眼光"更成为贯穿"疑古"和"释古"的一条道路。另一方面,"疑古派"在辨伪过程中也发展出来一些与"重建派"非常相似的具有建设意义的观念,但因其给人留下的"破坏"的形象过强而被忽视了。     

五代时期的“中国”观

在五代十国时期,北方五朝相继,都以继承唐朝而自居于正统、代表中国,对其他各国都作现况的承认,但态度并不一致,视局势的不同而有所调整,或认为天下分裂,各有其国,或认为地方政权应在臣属的地位。而其他各国有的承认北方五代为正统,屈从于臣属地位,也有认为天下分裂,北方并不能是中国的必然代表,即各有其国,各有合法的地位。"中国"代表北方中原的朝代还是代表"天下"?在表述中并不一致,当时的情形是各自的认知并不一致之故,亦即没有共识的基础。