Contemporary International Law of Civilized Peoples

The pre-eminent Russian international lawyer of the pre-1917 era, Fedor Fedorovich Martens (1845-1909) is best known abroad for his role in bringing to fruition the 1899 and 1907 Hague peace conferences (including the celebrated Martens Clause), his involvement in major international arbitrations ("international judge of the world"), and his seminal annotated fifteen-volume treaty collection (parallel French and Russian texts). He also produced a two-volume (General and Special Parts) treatise on international law which between 1882 and 1905 went through five editions.

The present volume contains the Special Part of the Martens "course", available for the first time in English and the only version in any language to take into account the changes made by the author between editions, including sections omitted in later versions.

Martens develops his concept of the international community, the respective roles of "civilized" and "non-civilized" peoples as a man of his generation understood those categories, the importance of "international administrative law", the central role of human rights in human civilization, the embryonic principles of international humanitarian law, emerging constraints of the right to go to war and on the conduct of warfare, with substantial attention to the history of international law. At long last the English reader has access to the leading Russian thinker and diplomatist of the Imperial Russian period, influential in shaping the substance of international law down to the present, with an exceptional command of Russian State practice.

Fedor Fedorovich Martens was Professor of International Law at St. Petersburg University, nominated repeatedly for the Nobel Peace Prize, senior legal advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Emperor of the Russian Empire, member of the Hague Permanent Court of International Arbitration, diplomatic historian, a principal architect of the Hague peace conferences, author of major treatises on international law and the leading Russian textbook, recipient of honorary doctorates at continental and American law schools, and a member of the Institute of International Law elected to numerous academies of sciences, including the Russian Academy of Sciences.

William E. Butler has written extensively on the history of international law and is the founding editor of Jus Gentium: Journal of International Legal History (2016-). He is the John Edward Fowler Distinguished Professor of Law, Dickinson Law, Pennsylvania State University; Professor Emeritus of Comparative Law in the University of London (University College London); ...