A Visual History of International Law

Contribute to the ongoing Visual History of International Law project at [email protected]

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Thomas R. Graham (L), a current Member of the Appellate Body of the WTO, together with Robert E. Lighthizer ( R), the present US Trade Representative, in 1989. 

During Mr Lighthizer’s tenure in the Trump administration, the US has blocked all appointments and reappointments of judges to the Appellate Body of the WTO leading to, what many informed observers call, its “suffocation”.

Source: https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2058889/trump-name-reagan-veteran-robert-lighthizer-us-trade

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Source: http://criticallegalthinking.com/2015/03/27/six-books-international-law-human-rights-politics-turn-history/

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President Abraham (1st from L) and Judge Bhandari (2nd from L) of the ICJ at the Bukhara restaurant in New Delhi. 

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"The unforgettable ceiling sculpture by Spanish artist Miquel Barceló soars above the Human Rights and Alliance of Civilizations Room - home to the UN Human Rights Council - and ready for the high-level opening of the Council's biggest March session at 9am on Monday 2 March.

Watch High Commissioner Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, US Secretary of State John Kerry, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and many more Foreign Ministers and dignatories live via UN Web TV, and follow on social media using ‪#‎HRC28‬."

UN Photos/Jean-Marc Ferré

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Professor James Crawford (2nd from L on the bench) during his swearing-in ceremony at the International Court of Justice. Others on the bench (L-R): Registrar Couvreur; Judge Bhandari; Judge Gaja. Also seen standing below Judge Crawford is Deputy-Resgistrar Fomété. Source.

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outside the salle de l'Alabama in Geneva -- the seat of the tribunal hearing the Alabama claims. Source.

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Pamphlets of the candidates for the triennial ICJ election. 6 November 2014. Source.

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A 1947 map depicting the Award of the Bengal Boundary Commission (Radcliffe, Biswas, Mukherji, Mohamed Akram and Rahman), partitioning Bengal into East Bengal (then Pakistan, now Bangladesh) and West Bengal (India). Source.

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Members of the Appellate Body (with staff of the Appellate Body Secretariat) in March 2000: Julio Lacarte Muró (fifth from left), Florentino Feliciano (sixth from left), Said El Naggar (front centre), James Bacchus (sixth from right), Claus-Dieter Ehlermann (fifth from right), Mitsuo Matsushita (third from right), Christopher Beeby (far right). Debra Steger, Director of the Appellate Body Secretariat, is front centre. Source.

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WTO Appelllate Body hearing in October 2002. Source.

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Arthur Dunkel (right), GATT Director General, 1980-1993. Source.

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The remains of a pepper wreck from a Portuguese East-Indiaman, presumably the Nossa Senhora dos Martires, lost on 15 September 1606 while returning from Cochin, Kerala. Maritime Museum, Lisbon.

As Professor R.P. Anand explains, the origins of modern international law can be traced back to trade in black pepper between the European powers and the East Indies. The first book of modern international law, Mare Liberum, was prepared as a legal brief by a Dutch jurist, Hugo Grotius, to contest the Portuguese monopoly of Indian Ocean trade, particularly trade in black pepper and other spices, and to defend his country‘s right to have freedom of the seas to have trade with East Indies. Read more.

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An artist's depiction of the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. 

"Although the treaties were not concluded in a single signing moment, the artist depicts the diplomats who negotiated the various agreements together in the ballroom of the Utrecht Town Hall, posed as if they have just signed an agreement. Among the diplomats are five allegorical figures. These include a child holding a globe, symbolizing the various geographies touched by the treaty; a female figure holding an olive branch and dove, representing peace; and another woman holding an open book to symbolize  justice." Image and text source.

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Visit of the President of Argentina, Arturo Frondizi, to the Peace Palace in The Hague. 1 July 1960. 2nd from left is Muhammad Zafarullah Khan, a Pakistani diplomat and jurist, and later the President of the International Court of Justice. Source.

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Andrew Carnegie, outside the residence of the US ambassador to the Netherlands in The Hague. 1913. Source.

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Hammer and trowel used to lay the first brick of the Peace Palace. 1907. Source.

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William Meyer, an Indian Civil Service officer and the first High Commissioner for India, signing the statute of the Permanent Court of International Justice on behalf of India (a British colony at the time). 1920. Source.