Overview

Volume II of The Cambridge History of International Law breaks the mould of Eurocentric histories in the field by exploring international law in Asia from antiquity to decolonisation. Its twenty-six chapters span a vast geography, covering both the landmass and the oceans; offering accounts of statecraft and diplomacy, war and trade; marriage and gift-giving; treaty-making and dispute settlement; ideas of the human and 'the other'; and entanglements of political authority with mercantile, corporate and religious orders. The chapters introduce readers to a diverse cast of characters, from scholars, scientists, geographers, mapmakers; to traders, merchants, shipowners and entrepreneurs; and to women, revolutionaries, pirates, labourers, and monks. The volume explains leading historiographical trends, ponders the challenges of writing Asian histories of international law, highlights available materials and methods, and showcases the conceptual purchase of Asian histories for thinking about international law.

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9781009100670

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Randall Lesaffer is Professor of Legal History at KU Leuven in Belgium and Tilburg University in the Netherlands. He is the author of European Legal History: A Cultural and Political Perspective (2009) and co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to Hugo Grotius (2021). He is the editor-in-chief of the book series Studies in the History of International Law, an editor of the Global Law series and an editor of the Journal of the History of International Law. Maria Adele Carrai is Associate Professor at the Department of Politics and International Relations at Oxford University. Her research on the history of international law in East Asia and China's ascent as a global power includes the books Sovereignty in China: A Genealogy of a Concept since 1840 (2019), and the co-edited The China Questions 2: Critical Insights into US-China Relations (2022). Surabhi Ranganathan is Professor of International Law at the University of Cambridge, a fellow of King's College, Cambridge, and Deputy Director of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law. Her research on the history and political economy of international law includes the book Strategically Created Treaty Conflicts and the Politics of International Law (2014), and several essays on the co-constitution of the ocean and international law.

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