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Abstract:
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What has been the impact of Communism on the European scholarship of international law in the
post-World War II period ? What are lingering differences today in the attitudes of scholars from West
and East Europe twenty years after the end of the cold war? This paper, which is part of a series of
country studies, is aimed at contributing to a reflection on these questions by focusing on Italy and
Italian international law scholarship in the period 1945-1989. The research has covered the responses
of Italian scholars to some of the major international crises triggered by Soviet Communism during the
Cold War, the influence of Communist theories of international law on Italian doctrine, Communism
as an object of study by Italian international law scholars, and the influence of Communism on the
active political engagement of Italian scholars. Surprisingly, the conclusion is that such influence has
been extremely limited, in spite of the profound impact of Communism on post World-War II Italian
political and social life. |