Arguing that the concept of an 'international rule of law' has a history independent from that of the national rule of law, this book discusses early modern European thought on natural law and justice and Chinese thought on world order and international law. It provides a unique examination of comparative international legal history and philosophy.

• Introduction: The Moral Responsibility of Rulers: Going Back Beyond the Liberal 'Rule of Law' for World Order


• Part I: Law and Justice in Early Modern European Thought on World Order


• 1: Joseph Canning: The Universal Rule of Law in the Thought of the Late Medieval Jurists of Roman and Canon Law


• 2: Susan Longfield Karr: 'The Law of Nations is Common to all Mankind': Jus gentium in Humanist Jurisprudence


• 3: Andrew RC Simpson: 'Cleare as is the Summers Sunne'? Scottish Perspectives on Legal Learning, Parliamentary Power and the English Royal Succession


• 4: Xavier Tubau: Humanism, the Bible, and Erasmus' Moral World Order


• 5: Anthony Pagden: Legislating for the 'Whole World that is, in a Sense, a Commonwealth': Conquest, Occupation, and the Obligation to 'Defend the Innocent'


• 6: Anthony Carty: Cardinal Richelieu between Vattel and Machiavelli


• 7: John Witte Jr.: The Universal Rule of Natural Law and Written Constitutions in the Thought of Johannes Althusius


• 8: Christoph Stumpf: Hugo Grotius and the Universal Rule of Law


• 9: Peter Goodrich: Aquatopia: Lines of Amity and Laws of the Sea


• 10: Janne Nijman: A Universal Rule of Law for a Pluralist World Order: Leibniz's Universal Jurisprudence and his Praise of the Chinese Ruler


• Part II: Law and Justice in Chinese Thought on World Order


• 11: Aihe Wang: Moral Rulership and World Order in Ancient Chinese Cosmology


• 12: Chun-chieh Huang: 'Humane Governance' as the Moral Responsibility of Rulers in East Asian Confucian Political Philosophy


• 13: Hu Henan: Bridging the Western and Eastern Traditions: A Comparative Study of the Legal Thoughts of Hugo Grotius and Lao Zi


• 14: Emily Cheung and Maranatha Fung: The Hazards of Translating Wheaton's 'Elements of International Law' into Chinese: Cultures of World Order Lost in Translation


• 15: Tian Tao: Chinese Intellectuals' Discourse of International Law in the Late 19th Century and Early 20th Century


• 16: Patrick Sze-lok Leung and Anthony Carty: The Crisis of the Ryukyus 1877-1882: Confucian World Order Challenged and Defeated by Western/Japanese Imperial International Law


• 17: Anna Baka and Lucy QI: Lost in Translation in the Sino-French War in Vietnam: From Western International Law to Confucian Legal Semantics: A Comparative-Critical Analysis of Chinese, French, and American Archives


• 18: Patrick Sze-Lok Keung and Bijun Xu: The Sino-Japanese War and the Collapse of the Qing and Confucian World Order in the Face of Japanese Imperialism and European Acquiescence


• 19: Jing Tan and Anthony Carty: Confucianism and Western International Law in 1900: Li Hongzhang and Sir Ernest Satow Compared: The Case Study of the Crisis of Russia in Manchuria 1900-1

Professor Anthony Carty is Professor of Law at the Beijing Institute of Technology School of Law. Professor Carty has published widely in the field of critical theory and international law.
Professor Janne Nijman is Professor of History and Theory of International Law at the University of Amsterdam and a Senior Research Fellow of the Amsterdam Center for International Law. She is the Academic Director of the T.M.C. Asser Instituut in The Hague, and is co-editor of New Perspectives on the Divide Between National and International Law.