Overview

International law has played a crucial role in the construction of imperial projects. Yet within the growing field of studies about the history of international law and empire, scholars have seldom considered this complicit relationship in the Americas. The Hidden History of International Law in the Americas offers the first exploration of the deployment of international law for the legitimization of U.S. ascendancy as an informal empire in Latin America. This book explores the intellectual history of a distinctive idea of American international law in the Americas, focusing principally on the evolution of the American Institute of International Law (AIIL). This organization was created by U.S. and Chilean jurists James Brown Scott and Alejandro Alvarez in Washington D.C. for the construction, development, and codification of international law across the Americas. Juan Pablo Scarfi examines the debates sparked by the AIIL over American international law, intervention and non-intervention, Pan-Americanism, the codification of public and private international law and the nature and scope of the Monroe Doctrine, as well as the international legal thought of Scott, Alvarez, and a number of jurists, diplomats, politicians, and intellectuals from the Americas. Professor Scarfi argues that American international law, as advanced primarily by the AIIL, was driven by a U.S.-led imperial aspiration of civilizing Latin America through the promotion of the international rule of law. By providing a convincing critical account of the legal and historical foundations of the Inter-American System, this book will stimulate debate among international lawyers, IR scholars, political scientists, and intellectual historians.

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9780190622374

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Reviews

"""The Hidden History of International Law in the Americas is an important contribution to the interwoven history of imperialism and international law. Juan-Pablo Scarfi has performed a valuable service by un-ravelling the complex network of individuals, institutions, and ideas that helped to legitimate the dominance of the United States in the Western Hemisphere during the early twentieth century."" --Duncan Bell, Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge ""A deeply-researched eye-opening account of the interaction between U.S. imperialism and Pan-American aspirations in the making of international law in the Western Hemisphere. It offers a new angle into perennial inquiries about U.S.-Latin American relations, and a model for transnational intellectual history."" --Jos� C. Moya, Professor of History, Barnard College, Columbia University ""In reconstructing the ideology of Pan-Americanism, Juan Pablo Scarfi has shown how international law helps establish and secure hegemonic relations while also providing tools for those who might struggle to disturb them. With his insights into how and why the United States associated itself with international law from the nineteenth century on, Scarfi also recovers how the agenda of Latin Americans, notably Alejandro Alvarez, shaped outcomes. A brilliant debut.""--Samuel Moyn, Jeremiah Smith, Jr. Professor of Law and Professor of History, Harvard University ""Juan Pablo Scarfi has provided a fascinating and detailed insight into the interplay between international law and politics during the crucial half-century preceding World War II. He sheds valuable new light on U.S.-Latin American relations during that period, and especially on the controversies over the Monroe Doctrine.""--Stephen C. Neff, School of Law, University of Edinburgh"

Author Information

Juan Pablo Scarfi is a Research Associate at the Argentine National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), and teaches international relations and international law at the School of Politics and Government at the National University of San Mart�n, Argentina. He completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge in 2014. He was a Visiting Scholar at University College London (Institute of the Americas) and Columbia University, as well as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Intellectual History in the National University of Quilmes. He is the author of El imperio de la ley: James Brown Scott y la construcci�n de un orden jur�dico interamericano (2014) and co-editor of Cooperation and Hegemony in US-Latin American Relations: Revisiting the Western Hemisphere Idea (2016).

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