The Turn to History in International Law and the Sources Doctrine: Critical Approaches and Methodological Imaginaries

Arvidsson, M., & Bak McKenna, M. (n.d.). The turn to history in international law and the sources doctrine: Critical approaches and methodological imaginaries. Leiden Journal of International Law, 1-20. 2019

DOI:10.1017/S0922156519000542

27 Pages Posted: 3 Feb 2020

See all articles by Matilda Arvidsson

Matilda Arvidsson

University of Gothenburg - Department of Law

Miriam Bak McKenna

Lund University - Faculty of Law

Date Written: August 8, 2019

Abstract

Expanding now familiar debates about the impact of the ‘historical turn’ upon the field of international law, this article considers some of the different ways in which ‘turn to history’ scholars have confronted the methodological and theoretical tensions arising from the central, yet paradoxical role occupied by the sources doctrine in international law. We suggest that the anxiety over the sources of international law as the basic methodological precepts of the discipline, has been a catalyzing element for a radical re-engagement with the canon of international law, one with a significant impact on the field’s existing parameters and doctrinal limits. Within the three streams of scholarship we explore here, history has become a site of creative engagement for scholars in opening up the discipline to diverse ends, one in which a new doctrinal universe can be created, and new issues, sources, subjects and approaches can be explored. Yet, by opening up international law’s sources doctrine reactionary causes and unjust ends may equally well be the result. This account is an attempt at diversifying the narrative surrounding the causal relationship between history and the ongoing changes to the field of international law, along with the differential practices, techniques and epistemological foundations behind the history of international law as an evolving discipline, and of the different scholarly motivations of its specialists.

Keywords: ‘turn to history’ in international law, historiography, sources doctrine, crisis, democratization

JEL Classification: K33

Suggested Citation

Arvidsson, Matilda and McKenna, Miriam Bak, The Turn to History in International Law and the Sources Doctrine: Critical Approaches and Methodological Imaginaries (August 8, 2019). Arvidsson, M., & Bak McKenna, M. (n.d.). The turn to history in international law and the sources doctrine: Critical approaches and methodological imaginaries. Leiden Journal of International Law, 1-20. 2019, DOI:10.1017/S0922156519000542, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3516654

Matilda Arvidsson (Contact Author)

University of Gothenburg - Department of Law ( email )

Viktoriagatan 30
Göteborg
Sweden

HOME PAGE: http://law.handels.gu.se/om-institutionen/personal?userId=xarmas

Miriam Bak McKenna

Lund University - Faculty of Law ( email )

Lilla Gråbrödersgatan 4
Lund, 222 22
Sweden

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