On 26 November, the IILJ’s History and Theory of International Law Workshops presented International Legal Orders as Histories, China and the West. This workshop explored roles of ideas about history in ordering projects past and present. We launched the discussion from two starting points with authors of major recent scholarly contributions, with the aim however of generating a unified inquiry. One starting point was the canonical western international law tradition associated with Hugo Grotius and the construction of rule of law. The second starting point was thought in China on sovereignty and international order, particularly since 1840. Martti Koskenniemi drew themes from his article Imagining the Rule of Law: Rereading the Grotian ‘Tradition’. Maria Adele Carrai drew themes from her  book China and Sovereignty: A Genealogy of a Concept since 1840. Francesca Iurlaro and Zvi Ben-Dor Benite served as commentators.

The IILJ History and Theory of International Law Workshops are presented with the support of the NYU Global Institute for Advanced Study, Project on International Legal Orders and their Histories.