Claire Vergerio 

War, States and International Order: 

Alberico Gentili and the Foundational Myth of the Law of Wars  

Who has the right to wage war? The answer to this question constitutes one of the most fundamental organizing principles of any international order. Under contemporary international humanitarian law, this right is essentially restricted to sovereign states. It has been conventionally assumed that this arrangement derives from the ideas of the late-sixteenth century jurist Alberico Gentili. Claire Vergerio argues that this story is a myth, invented in the late 1800s by a group of prominent international lawyers who crafted what would become the contemporary laws of war. These lawyers reinterpreted Gentili's writings on war after centuries of marginal interest, and this revival was deeply intertwined with a project of making the modern sovereign state the sole subject of international law. By uncovering the genesis and diffusion of this narrative, Vergerio calls for a profound reassessment of when and with what consequences war became the exclusive prerogative of sovereign states.

Claire Vergerio is an independent scholar of international relations, working at the intersection of political thought, history, and international law. Her first book “War, States, and International Order: Alberico Gentili and the Foundational Myth of the Laws of War” received the International Studies Association’s 2023 Francesco Guicciardini Prize, awarded annually to the best book in Historical International Relations.

Date: 28 November 2024
Time: 6.00-7.00 pm CET
The presentation will take place online via Zoom. Please register below. The Zoom link and login data will be sent to those registered ahead of the event.

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