Book Review: Mestizo International Law: A Global Intellectual History 1842-1933

Abstract

Mestizo International Law aims to renovate historical studies in the field of international law by directly confronting their Eurocentric character. With a focus in the West, these conventional narratives ‘present a teleological trajectory: from a European to a universal international law’ (p. 9). Challenging this way of writing histories in the field, Becker Lorca narrates a mestizo international law, and here is the most significant part of his project, as ‘international law emerged out of the interaction between Western and non-Western sovereigns, as well as from the professional rapports and debates between Western and non-Western international lawyers’ (pp. 10–11).