The Turn to Historiography in International Law: Limitations and New Horizons

Abstract This article, for the sake of introducing the contributions to the special issue that follows, revisits some of the key scholarly controversies that have punctuated the last decades of debates and critiques of the histories of international law. Commonly called the ‘turn to history’, this special issue construes this development rather as a historiographical turn. Particular attention is paid to the kinship between the historiographical turn and postcolonial critiques of international law, the relationship between the historiographical turn and the increased interest in the history of international law scholarship, and the relationship between such historiographical appetite and the idea of presentism. Finally, and before introducing the contributions to this special issue, this essay floats the idea of a post-progressive approach to the history of international law, with a view to creating new spaces for the renewal of the never-ending critique and rewriting of the histories of international law.