The Law of International Society: Remarks on a Domesticated Notion

Join the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future for the next event in the International History Institute’s (IHI) Spring 2025 “History of International Law” speaker series. The first event of the spring is the Keynote Lecture, titled "The Law of International Society: Remarks on a Domesticated Notion," by Martti Koskenniemi (Professor Emeritus of International Law, University of Helsinki). Koskenniemi argues that, while the notion of “law of international society” arose in the mid-19th century to challenge state-centric thinking about international law, it also encouraged some sociological reflection on the field. It became part of one strand of interwar legal thinking but was finally domesticated in the 1960s and 1970s to express a UN-centered North-Atlantic institutional legalism. The event will take place on Thursday, January 30 from 5:00-6:30 pm. The series is open to the public. Please register to attend.