The imagination of alternatives : the history of international arbitration in the late nineteenth century 1863-1888

Abstract

The thesis narrates the transformation of international arbitration in the late 19th century, from 1863-1888. By deciphering unpublished archives and manuscripts, and contextualising legal texts, political debates and social movements, the thesis argues that international arbitration was constructed as a politically and legally productive framework in European diplomacy and international law in the course of the late 19th century. The thesis examines how different professional groups — pacifists, politicians, and international lawyers — played their parts in articulating and promoting arbitration as a legal solution in international dispute settlement in order to eradicate war and maintain peace. To understand how different ideas and projects of arbitration had made this general transformation possible, we need to trace the trajectories where ideas were formulated and contested. The thesis starts from the 1863-1872 Alabama dispute by arguing that its final settlement — the 1872 Alabama arbitration — inspired a handful of in-depth contemporary reflections and optimism about international legal reform and the progress of civilisation in the late 19th century. The thesis then separately traces the contours of social, intellectual and political projects of international arbitration in Britain, France and Italy, through which it aims to explain how different stances towards international arbitration were shaped by their particular regional backgrounds. On these bases, the thesis explores how multiple political and intellectual imaginations of international arbitration confronted each other and helped to consolidate the legal frameworks of arbitration in two important international law institutions in the late 19th century — the International Law Association and the Institut de droit international.