A Very Short History of International Law Journals, 1869-2018

Abstract

Copyright © The Author(s) 2018. The first part presents an overview of the rise of the first international and comparative law journals in the late 19th century followed by an account of the three factors lying behind the relative fall of the comparative element in the title of some of the international law journals published in French, Russian, Spanish, German, Japanese, Italian and English from 1869 to the end of the First World War. The second part surveys the consolidation of international law periodicals in the interwar period under the impact of the establishment of the League of Nations in both Latin-America and Europe including Nordic and Eastern Europe. The third part examines the expansion and main characteristics of international law journals during the Cold war and their geographical extension towards Asia, Oceania and, occasionally, the Middle East and Africa. The fourth part focuses on the main features of the global post-1989 period in the field of periodicals of international law examining the impact on them of the expansion and sectoral specialization of international law, regionalization, globalization, interdisciplinary and the transformative influence of new technologies respectively. The conclusion reflects on the first one hundred and fifty years of international law journals and points to future developments.