Sociological and cultural history of international law (1815-1871)

While International law is first said to be a distinct profession with institutions and journals in the 1870's, this project has shown that  from the Vienna Congress (1815) to the Franco-Prussian Wars (1870-1871), lawyers have initiated professional practices and shaped the making of International Law. They were involved in foreign offices, scientific academies, and universities, wrote textbooks and articles and created professional networks. This project investigates, for the first time, the interaction between foreign offices and international lawyers. This paper puts forward a prosopography of legal advisers employed in the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and of the members of the Consultative Litigation Committee. Two peer-reviewed publications have been accepted and a conference proceeding is forthcoming.